Naruto Uzumaki: Seal Master
by King of the Void
Summary: Kyubi waited until Madara was right in front of him to agree to help Naruto, but what if he had agreed to help from the beginning? Naru/Hina eventually.
1. History Lesson

**I do not own Naruto, though if someone want to give it to me for Christmas I promise I'll get Naru/Hina going as soon as I can.**

Chapter 1: A History Lesson

* * *

><p>Naruto slept peacefully, a face splitting grin stretching his cheeks. It had been there for hours, ever since Iruka had given him his headband. He probably would have woken up with it still there too, but the Kyubi had other plans. Instead Naruto woke (his grin still in place) in the sewers of his mind, just outside of the Kyubi's cell. As he looked around the ear to ear grin faded to a curious smile. He somehow knew he wasn't truly awake, but at the same time he wasn't dreaming either. He could also tell that despite easily being able to fit through the bars, going beyond the gate would be a very VERY bad idea.<p>

As he peered into the darkness he saw… something. A shape blacker than black slowly shifting just out of his range of vision. "About time you got here." Growled a deep booming voice. Naruto (with his grin dead and buried with a touching eulogy that inspired many other grins to be as wide and toothy as they could) fell back in shock realizing what the thing was.

"Kyubi!" gasped the blond as blood red eyes opened in the darkness, staring at him full of… well boredom actually. To his surprise the Kyubi stood and stretched as if it had just been woken up from a long nap, it's joints popping with the sound of explosive tags.

"Look Kit, I know you've probably heard the whole 'Kyubi's a monster' thing growing up, right?" Naruto nodded deftly, he had no idea what to think anymore. "Well I am, but I didn't attack your village by choice."

"WHAT?" screamed Naruto.

Kyubi sighed and laid down in just beyond the gate. "I know it's a bit shocking, but yeah I've never attacked your village of my own free will. Not when you were born, not at the valley of the end, not EVER! Frankly I'm sick of being locked up for something I didn't do, but I have other things to worry about now. I thought Madara had died in that valley, but when he appeared for your mother I was proven wrong."

Naruto blinked. "My mother? You know who my parents were?"

Kyubi eyed him curiously. "No one ever told you? I guess they didn't tell you anything at all." He sighed in what seemed like disappointment, much to Naruto's confusion. "Your mother was my previous container." Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Over the course of her pregnancy the seal weakened as more of her energy was going to you and on the night you were born a man named Madara Uchiha attacked her in order to release me." Naruto sat frozen in shock, unsure of how to process this new information. He was the reason the reason for the Kyubi's attack? As if sensing what he was thinking the Kyubi let out a dark chuckle. "No Kit, the bastard would have eventually attacked anyway. If anything you're the reason there's still a village today since only Uzumakis have a high enough natural chakra capacity to keep me sealed inside them."

Naruto blinked, connecting the dots. "But then Uzuamki was my mother's name. What was my father's?"

Kyubi closed his eyes, savoring the suspense and preparing for the reveal. "Your father was Minato Namekaze, the fourth hokage." Opening his eyes, Kyubi had to fight back a laugh. Demons don't laugh, they chuckle, they cackle, they giggle with madness; but they don't laugh. "I wouldn't tell anyone though, he made a lot of enemies in his time so if you did there would be hundreds of bloodthirsty ninja after your head within a week."

Naruto shivered, he had enough time getting away from ninja after his pranks. "Why are you telling me all this? I'm not going to let you out, if that's what you want."

Kyubi shook his head. "I want to get out eventually, but if I did now I'd run he chance of the lord of pink eye taking control of me again. I'm telling you all this because right now the choice is being partners with you or being a slave to him. You're the third person I've been sealed in since the valley so I know plenty of tricks to make you stronger, but first I think we should activate your bloodline."

"I have a bloodline?" asked Naruto excitedly.

"The Uzumaki clan were sealing masters because of their bloodline." Explained Kyubi. "They could rewrite seals by adding their own blood to the seal. They could also make unbreakable chains of pure chakra to capture things to be sealed."

Naruto was bouncing with excitement. "What do I have to do?" To his surprise Kyubi threw a book at him, nailing him right between the eyes. "OUCH, what the hell?"

"Read it and you'll be able to use your bloodline." Instructed Kyubi as he went back to sleep. "It should be morning by the time your done." Naruto sighed and opened the book to the first page.

The Uzumaki Clan: Seal Masters

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well Nanowrimo is over (I didn't win) and I still have my writing juices flowing. I've decided to start a chapter story instead of doing more Omake. I'll try to update at least once a week. Please read and review.<strong>


	2. Voices In My Head

**AN: -Checks In-box- Story Alert +, Story Alert +, Favorite Story +, Story Alert +...-Blink- They like me! They really like me! Lol, sorry about that, but when I get sixty some notices from just one chapter I can't help but feel good. **

**On a note to Sasha Naruto, my only reviewer so far, please read chapters 500-504 and tell me Kushina wasn't a jinchuuriki. If you feel she shouldn't have been I can respect that, but please don't tell me something in the manga itself isn't canon. Also while I do enjoy NarutoXFemKyuubi stories, this isn't one of them.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Voices In My Head<p>

Iruka watched his favorite student curiously, he'd come in smiling like usual, but had glared daggers at Sasuke as he passed the Uchiha. I wasn't even his usual 'I'll be better than you', this was a 'I hate you with every fiber of my being' glare. The same kind he got from so many of the villagers. So strong was it that Sasuke was left speechless by the level of pure hatred Naruto's eyes sent his way. Without a word the blond went to the back of the room and sat down. As luck would have it the only seat available in the back just happened to be next to Hinata.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" Asked Hinata, torn between worry and embarrassment. She'd watched Naruto for years, not like a stalker mind you, just stop and watch whenever she found him training. She never went looking for him, or followed him around like one of Sasuke's fan girls, but just take notice of him when they met. After all that time though, she could honestly say this was the angriest she'd ever seen him.

"Yeah," nodded Naruto, his eyes still drilling holes in the back of the Uchiha's skull. "I just got some bad news related to Duckbut's clan. I know HE didn't have anything to do with it, but..." he sighed, a bit of his anger leaving him. "A lot happened yesterday and I'm still trying to get my head around all of it." He sighed again and turned to her. He tilted his head a bit, as if remembering something. "You can see chakra, right Hinata-chan?" Hinata blushed at the honorific and nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. "Could you help me train sometime? I'm having trouble with a new jutsu."

"I-I'd l-love to." Stuttered Hinata with a full face blush.

Naruto blinked and placed his hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling alright Hinata-chan? Your face is all red." With a small whimpering moan Hinata fainted onto the desk. "IRUKA-SENSEI! HINATA FAINTED I SWEAR I DIDN'T TO ANYTHING!"

The entire room sweat dropped at that, the earlier tension forgotten as Iruka let out a sigh. "She'll be fine Naruto, just give her some room." With the room back to normal he began assigning his former students into teams. Naruto meanwhile had returned to glaring, admittedly weaker, daggers into Sasuke. As he did so he noticed the look on Sakura's face as she spoke to Sasuke was a lot like the one Hinata had...given...

'No fucking way!' Was all he was able to think before his thought process was reduced to wordless babbling.

'Oi, Kit!' Shouted Kyuubi in his mind. 'Earth to Naruto, come in Naruto.'

'Hello Fluffy.' Thought Naruto in a daze. 'I has voices in my head.'

Kyuubi blinked. 'I know I should be angry, but damn this has messed you up big time. Put your head down to rest. If anyone asks just say too many shadow clones dispelled at once and you need to sort through the memories.' No sooner had he gotten the words out than Naruto's head made a resounding crack against the desk.

"Naruto?" shouted Iruka in shock.

"Lord Fluffernutter says fodder clones going pop make head snap." moaned Naruto, his face still against the desk. "I need to do paperwork on head thinks."

Iruka blinked then managed to piece together what Naruto was talking about. "Kiba, please escort Naruto to the Doctor's Office. Tell him Naruto is suffering a mental overload from too many shadow clones dispelling at once."

"Shadow clones?" repeated Sakura curiously. "What are they?"

Iruka smiled, deciding to take this one last chance to be their teacher. "A shadow clone is a solid clone designed for recon missions. While it can only take a small amount of damage all the clones memories and experiences return to the original making them ideal for high risk spy missions. Naruto learned to create them last night, hence his presence her today."

"Why didn't we all learn it?" asked Sakura in confusion. "If Naruto could learn it then the rest of us should have no problem."

Iruka sighed. "Shadow clones are a B-rank Jounin jutsu. The chakra requirement would kill most if not all of you just to make one. I could probably make two or three." Iruka let a small smile appear on his face. He may not be able to play favorites, but this was just stating a fact. "Naruto on the other hand can make several hundred and learned the jutsu in the span of a few hours. He also learned the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, which is classified as suicide jutsu for anyone with less than Kage level reserves."

There was silence for what felt like hours before Ino piped up. "Why is he the dead last then?"

"Because he's too powerful." Explained Iruka. "The techniques required to pass are selected for someone with genin level reserves. You learn them as you develop your chakra control so you only have to worry about under powering a jutsu. Think of it this way: to do a jutsu you need to fill up a cup with water from a faucet. For Naruto however it's closer to filling a thimble with a fire hose." He shook his head and returned to the team assignments. "Team Seven: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought the same thing.

'This will not end well.'

* * *

><p><strong>AN: How will Naruto deal with the sudden realization that Hinata likes him? How will this change his feelings towards Sakura? Will he even regain his sanity enough to decide? The answers to these questions and more, next time on Naruto Uzumaki: Seal Master!<strong>

**Don't get use to the daily updates, I'm sure writers block will rear it's ugly head soon enough.  
><strong>


	3. Doctor! Doctor!

**AN: A big thanks to everyone who's reviewed, it really helps me stay motivated to write.  
><strong>

**Chapter 3: Doctor! Doctor!**

Dr. Shamal watched wake Naruto curiously, knowing that his current condition was not what the loud boy with a dog on his head claimed it was. Mental overload would immediately knock the person out and when they woke up they would have little to no memory of what it was they learned. This was closer to learning something big that made you question several other primary facts in your life. 'Going mad from the revelation.' he remembered. 'I don't know what you learned kid, but I hope for all our sakes you get better.'

Unlike most other doctors, Dr. Shamal held no ill will towards Naruto and even understood that Naruto was the only thing keeping everyone alive. It was for that reason he was assigned to the academy a year before Naruto began classes. He liked Naruto's pranks on the teachers, so long as no one got hurt, and sometimes talked with Iruka about if Naruto was eating right. He almost had a heart attack when Iruka told him Naruto practically lived on ramen.

"You feeling any better?" He asked without compassion.

Naruto sat up with a groan. "I think so, still got a headache but Fluffy says that should-" **'STOP CALLING ME THAT!'** he clasped his hand over his mouth, realizing what he just said.

"You can talk to him? And you call him Fluffy?" Naruto stared at him in amazement. He wasn't scared that Naruto was apparently communicating with the demon that had devastated the village and killed countless people? Dr. Shamal smiled at his confusion. "I understand the basics of sealing and know that HE wouldn't put up with the stuff you go through. If the village treated him like they do you they'd be dead in half a heartbeat." Naruto could have sworn the man was suddenly illuminated by heavenly light.

"Who are you." He asked in awe.

"I'm the academy doctor." He deadpanned. "I'm the guy you're suppose to come to when you get hurt training." Naruto cringed a bit under his glare. "My name's Dr. Shamal, nice to meet you."

Naruto shook the offered hand with a grin. "Naruto Uzumaki. But don't schools usually have nurses?"

"The kids here are learning to harness energy that can break the laws of physics and control the forces of nature. If I had my way there'd be an entire operating room on site for some of the things you kids do to yourselves." He shook his head. "So what DID happen to you? And don't tell me it was mental overload, I know what that looks like."

Naruto sighed, knowing this man would know if he made something up. "I realized something shocking and it made me... loopy for a bit."

"Sounds about right." Nodded Dr. Shamal. "Though it's not a medical term, the state is usually refereed to as 'going mad from the revelation' by most people. Care to tell me what it was that blew your mind?"

Naruto swallowed hard, deciding to get the doctor's advice on the subject. Until now he'd been crushing on Sakura and had very little experience being on the receiving end of affection. He wanted to return Hinata's feelings but felt it would be betraying Sakura if he did so. "I realized...well um... one of the girls in my class... hasacrushonme." He blurted the last part out as his cheeks reddened with embarrassment.

stared at him for a moment, reminding himself this was the child everyone thought was the Kyubi. He wasn't sure how to feel about this, the idea that a child would be so neglected that a simple crush would blow his mind. "Well congratulations, I guess. What do you plan to do?"

"I don't know." admitted Naruto. "I don't know her very well, but she seems nice. The real problem is that I like Sakura-chan. If I date Hinata-chan I'll be betraying Sakura-chan, if I date Sakura-chan I'll be hurting Hinata-chan. What should I do?"

blinked. Why would Naruto have broken down if he already had someone? Then he realized what must have been going on. "Naruto, has Sakura ever returned your affection? Has she ever smiled at you or given you encouragement?"

Naruto though hard. "No, I don't think so."

"I didn't think so." Sighed Shamal. "Look, close your eyes and think about what you want in a girlfriend. Not just what they look like, but what kind of person they are. Think about how you want to be treated and how you want to be able to treat them." He waited a few minutes as Naruto put together the ideas in his head. "Does Sakura fit that description?"

"No." Admitted Naruto quietly.

"Then she's not the girl for you." said Shamal simply. "Don't be distracted by a pretty face, look deeper and find the girl that's right for you. I don't know if Hinata will fit either, but you'll never know unless you give her a chance."

Naruto nodded. "Thanks Doc." Just then Iruka entered to check on Naruto. "Hi Iruka sensei, sorry about earlier."

"It's fine Naruto, so long as you're alright."smiled Iruka as he checked his papers. "I came by to let you know you'll be meeting your jounin sensei, Kakashi Hatake, in the classroom after lunch. You'll be on team seven with Sasuke and Sakura." He noticed Naruto darken at Sasuke's name. "Anything you want to tell me?"

"It's nothing." said Naruto, putting up his 'don't worry' grin. Iruka knew Naruto wouldn't talk unless he wanted to, and so he just waved the boy out of the office.

"So what DID happen to him?" Asked Iruka, knowing as well as Shamal that Naruto had lied about what happened.

"I'll tell you over a beer after work." Chuckled Shamal. "Though that kid sure is in for a rough time. It was bad luck for him to get Kakashi, not to mention being on a team with Sakura."

**AN: Yes, I did just throw in a random character to help Naruto though his relationship problem, Iruka was still with the class. A cookie to anyone who knows where I got the Shamal's name from without looking him up. If you're curious, no it's not the same person. He may show up every now and again to offer advice, but not very often.  
><strong>


	4. Five Minute Rule

**AN: Alright then, weekend's over and another chapter is done. Enjoy ^_^**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Five Minute Rule<strong>

"Where is he?" groaned Sakura as he paced across the mostly empty classroom. "All the other teams got picked up hours ago, where is this Kakashi person?"

"Don't know." mumbled Naruto, his head buried in his arms. "but could you quiet down, some of us are trying to rest." In reality he was getting a lesson from Kyuubi, but they didn't need to know that.

Sakura was shocked, Naruto had never spoken to her like that. He had always been kind and sweet to her, it felt wrong for him to be so dismissive. The shock soon passed though and was replaced with anger. "Don't talk to me like that! If you want to sleep do it at home."

Naruto groaned and sat up, knowing he wouldn't get any piece in the near future. His conversation with Shamal had made him realize something. While Sakura was pretty her beauty was only skin deep. In any case he'd just learned a new seal and this was the perfect opportunity to test it out.

Standing, he drew some of his chakra to his finger and walked over to the door. With a dull sizzling sound he etched a seal into the door frame. "That should do it, he'll be in for a surprise when he opens the door now." He chuckled darkly, rubbing his hands together.

"What did you do, dope?" Asked Sasuke from his seat near the window. Naruto had a suspicion he hadn't moved at all since that morning.

"It's a seal." replied Naruto irritably, he was still trying to not hold Madara's actions against the emo. "Think of it like a circuit board for chakra that can be made on almost anything. The most common are explosive notes and storage seals, but they barely scratch the surface on what seals can do."

"You mean like this?" asked Sakura, taking out a storage scroll. "I got it a while back, but I haven't been able to get it to work. I should have known something what wrong with the price being so low."

Naruto took the scroll and examined the seal, his eyes narrowing in disgust. "Of all the half assed pieces of junk! A blind monkey could have done better!" To the surprise of his teammates he bit his thumb and drew a line of blood across the seal. As they watched the blood flowed into the seal and began to change it, thinning out and thickening lines, smoothing edges and weaving a lattice of symbols. "There, now it should work."

Sakura took the offered scroll and sealed one of her kunai in it with a poof of smoke. "How the hell did you fix it? And what was up with your blood?"

"Whoever made that didn't know a thing about seals, otherwise they would have known you can't put the storage matrix parallel to the retrieval port, it just doesn't work like that. Not to mention there was far too much wasted chakra between the third and fourth relays with the connection being that thick. It was like someone picked up a book on seals and just made some of the symbols they saw without knowing that they did." Sakura was staring at him wide eyed and even Sasuke had raised an eyebrow. Was this really Naruto? "Anyway, the blood thing is a bloodline I just found out I had. Turns out the Uzumaki clan were seal masters who could rewrite seals by adding their blood to them. I'm also suppose to be able to make some kind of chains out of chakra, but I haven't figured that out yet."

"Why haven't I heard about your clan before?" asked Sasuke with only a hint of interest, though Naruto notices the lack of an insult.

"As far as I know I'm the last Uzumaki." explained Naruto. "I only found out about it recently too, but there use to be a village called Uzushiogakure. Back then they were considered the best seal masters in the world."

"What happened to them?" asked Sasuke, worried that clan genocide was more common than he originally believed.

"The other villages were worried that Uzu was getting to strong, so they decided to erase it." Explained Naruto sadly. "The survivors came to Konoha since it was apparently a sister city, that's why there's a spiral on our flack jackets." A loud zapping sound broke them from their thoughts as Kakashi Hatake fell to the ground with a dull thud just inside the doorway.

Kakashi coughed out a cloud of smoke and eyed the group. "My first impression of you is... why can't I feel my legs?"

"Lightning seal." said Naruto pointing above the doorway. "The charge built up stronger and stronger the longer you made us wait. It was low amps though so you'll be fine in a little bit." **(AN: I'm pretty sure electricity doesn't actually work like that. Seek professional help if you want to electrocute your teachers)**

"Just get up to the roof." groaned Kakashi and in a blur his students were out the door. "…wait how am I going to get up there?'

Ten minutes Later

"I hate you." Groaned Kakashi as he pulled himself up the last step onto the roof. "Did you really expect me to crawl all the way up here?"

"You did, didn't you?" Asked Naruto, making Kakashi's eye twitch.

"Let's just get introductions out of the way. We'll start with you Blondie."

"What should I say?"

"Your name, what you like, what you dislike, goals for the future, that sort of stuff."

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" suggested sakura.

"Alright." He made an effort to prop himself up against the railing along the edge of the building. "My name is Kakashe Hatake. I don't feel like telling you my likes or dislikes. My goal for the future…well for right now it's to be able to walk again."

"It should wear off soon." Said Naruto with a dismissive wave. "What about you Teme?"

"Watch it dope." Growled Sasuke. "My name's Sasuke Uchiha. I don't particularly like anything. My dream… no my ambition is to kill a certain person."

**'Well this is interesting.'** Chuckled Kyuubi inside Naruto's head.

'what?' asked Naruto, ignoring Sakura's introduction. He'd had a crush on her for years and knew exactly what she was going to say.

**'If I'm right, he wants to kill his brother, the one who killed the rest of their clan.'** explained Kyuubi. **'I sensed Madara nearby the night it happened, so we may all be able to work together.'**

A wicked smile spread across Naruto's face, worrying his teammates since Sakura had just said she disliked him. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and seals. I dislike the three minutes you need to wait for cup ramen to brew and incompetent sealers. My goals for the future are to become Hokage and correct a mistake."

"And what mistake would that be?" Asked Kakashi, a bit worried what Naruto could have meant.

"Five years ago all the sharingan users in the world were killed except for two of them. I plan to correct that oversight." He noticed his teammates were looking at him in shock then realized what the problem ways. "No, not the teme, he's not a sharingan user yet."

"How do you know about my clan?" growled Sasuke. "And what do you mean there's someone else besides HIM?"

Naruto closed his eyes and took a breath, enjoying the dramatic pause. "That's related to an S-rank secret that only I'm allowed to talk about. Maybe one day I'll trust you enough to tell you, but not now."

"Right then!" exclaimed Kakashi eagerly, desperate to get them on a different subject. "Tomorrow we'll be having the your final test, come to training ground seven for a survival mission. Oh and don't eat any breakfast or you'll throw up." With that he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sakura blinked. "Why didn't he do that to get up here?"

'I don't know." Said Naruto Shrugging. "but if he thought today was bad, he'd better not be late tomorrow."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And that's all he wrote...well for now at least. Anyone want to guess what Kakashi's next punishment will be? I'll give you a hint: it has to do with his mask. Please review.<strong>


	5. Mind Games

**AN at end of chapter**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: Mind Games<strong>

In the sewers of Naruto's mind

**"You really need to get your head out of the gutter."** chuckled Kyuubi as he tossed another book out of his cell.

Naruto just stared, ignoring the throbbing lump on his forehead. "Did you just make a joke?"

Kyuubi blinked.** "Oh Log, you're rubbing off on me!"**

"Don't blame this on me fluffy," yelled Naruto defensively. "we've only been talking to each other for two days."

**"Call me fluffy again and I'll make every dream you have relive the night you were conceived."** Naruto immediately ran to a side tunnel and began trowing up. **"That'll teach you, you little...oh wait that's up river from here. Oi, can you change your mind scape yet? I don't like walking in vomit water."**

"I don't know, I never tried." said Naruto as he returned wiping his mouth.

**"Well try."** growled Kyuubi. **"I'm sick of all this water, I didn't even know my paws could get wrinkly."**

Naruto just shrugged, supposedly it was easy to change your mind scape. He closed his eyes and thought about what he wanted his mind scape to be. He snapped his fingers and the water vanished.

**"Um Kit... I think you got it wrong."** Deadpanned Kyuubi as he looked around at the lush blue grass and deep green sky full of purple clouds.

Naruto tilted his head and held out his hand. As if waiting for him to do so a bowl of ramen fell from the sky. "Nope, pretty much what I was trying for. Oh and check behind you, I think you'll like what I put in your cell."

Kyuubi turned to the back of his cell, which was now more of a square cage, to find a large box about half as big as he was with several large holes in the top. On the front there was a red button marked 'START' and the words 'Whack-a-Madara' in gold letters. Confused he pressed the button, only to jump back in shock as chibi versions of Madara start popping out of the holes.** "What the hell?"**

"It's a game." explained Naruto. "I figured you'd get bored in here and want something to do. The point is to hit the Madara's with your tails before they go back in the holes. After a minute it'll stop when you miss three in a row and tell you your high score."

**GAME OVER! HIGH SCORE: 0**

Kyuubi stared at him in awe. **"Kit, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I don't say this often, but thank you."**

"Your welcome Fluffernutter." chuckled Naruto, before he felt something tugging on his consciousness. "Looks like you'll have to yell at me some other time, someone's at the door."

Back in the world of the waking

Naruto opened the door to his apartment that was being so rudely pounded on with a cold glare. "What do you want? It's one in the morning."

The ANBU maintained his composure at the sight of Naruto's hippo sleeping hat and ramen decorated pajamas. "Hokage-Sama wishes to see you at once."

"Fine." grumbled the blond as he stepped out. "Let's get this over with."

"Aren't you going to change?" Asked the ANBU, fighting back sweat drops.

"He calls me in without notice in the middle of the night." grumbled Naruto, still half asleep. "If he wanted me to dress for the occasion he should have told me ahead of time." The ANBU's hand twitched at the instinct to face palm.

In the Hokage's office Shamal, Kakashi, Iruka and Sarutobi talked tiredly about the days events. Normally a discussion like this would have taken place earlier, but the paperwork involved had been delayed due to plot devices and Kakashi being late. As it stood all four men were hoping this would end quickly so they could go to bed. All that was put aside when Naruto walked in, still wearing his pajamas and sleeping cap. "Can't this wait till morning?" Kakashi held together best, barely reacting beyond widening his eye. Iruka and Sarutobi had snorted, trying not to laugh. Shamal however would have none of that and started to laugh openly at the sight before them.

"I don't think so." Chuckled Sarutobi once everyone had recovered. "We wanted you to explain some of the things you did and said today. To start with, where did you learn to make that seal you used in the classroom?"

"Well, you see..." He looked around the room nervously. He trusted Iruka and Jiji with his life and had no problem telling them about his lessons from Kyuubi, but Shamal was still new to him. Not to mention Kakashi didn't make a very good first impression. "Um...can we talk about this in private? I mean I just met Dr. Shamal and Kakashi today so..."

"Understandable." Nodded Sarutobi. Taking that as their cue to leave the two quickly left to go to bed. He waved off Iruka as well, who didn't waste a second in leaving. "Now could you please tell me where you learned such an advanced seal?"

Naruto swallowed hard. "Stay calm, but Kyuubi's been teaching me stuff ever since Mizuki told me he was there. We've got an 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' sort of thing going on."

Sarutobi nodded gravely. "Dr. Shamal said you were speaking to him. Though why didn't he contact you before now?"

"Not sure, let me check." Naruto closed his eyes and slipped into his mind scape. "Hey Kyuubi."

**THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK "Yes?" THWACK THWACK THWACK**

"The Jiji wants to know stuff, can you pay attention for a bit?"

**THWACK THWACK "Sure."**

"Thanks, I'm not rea-"

**GAME OVER! HIGH SCORE: TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDREN FOURTY TWO!**

"You've been playing that non stop, haven't you?"

**"Yup."**

Opening his eyes. "Alright, he's paying attention now, go ahead." He frowned. "Oi, stop playing and pay attention!"

"As Shikaku would say; troublesome." sighed Sarutobi. "Why didn't Kyuubi contact you before Mizuki's betrayal?"

Naruto tilted his head, listening to Kyuubi's reply. "For some reason he couldn't contact me until I knew he was there. He's not sure why."

"Where did he learn seals? I can't really see him having any use for them."

Naruto again listened to Kyuubi's reply. "He learned from Mom and Mito-sama. After all, Uzumaki clan was pretty much the best sealers in the world, so he learned a lot from them over the years."

Sarutobi cleared his throat. "On that note I think it would be best if your clan's history were to remain secret for now. There are still some villages that would want to finish what they started."

"Really?" Asked Naruto, grinning nervously. "I kind of already told Sakura-chan and Sasuke."

"Well you are suppose to trust your teammates." Allowed Sarutobi. "So long as they know not to spread it around everything should be alright. Try to be a little more careful with information from now on though, alright Naruto?"

"Sure thing, Jiji." Smiled Naruto. "And besides, it's not like I told them about Kyuubi or who Dad was."

Sarutobi paled at that. "Yes, it would be very bad if that information got to the wrong people. You understand why I didn't tell you, right?"

"You though I would scream from the rooftops that the fourth was my father." Said Naruto, nodding sagely. "And if that got out a ton of powerful ninja would be after my head for revenge."

"Exactly." Chuckled Sarutobi. "In any case I also wanted you to explain what you meant when you told Sasuke that there was another Uchiha other than him and his brother."

Naruto decided to let the change in subject slide. "That's the enemy me and Kyuubi have in common. Madara Uchiha came back the night I was born."

AN: DUN DUN DUUUUN How will the Hokage react to this revelation? What new seal will Naruto use against Kakashi for being late? The answers, next time on Naruto Uzumaki: Seal Master!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. A request though, does anyone have a suggestion for a funny Naruto/KHR or Naruto/D. Gray Man crossover? For the first I keep wondering what Gai's reaction will be to the flames and for the second... well their two of my favorite series and the ark should make getting the cast to the Naruto universe easy. Just have Allen play the wrong note and BOOM stuck in the Naruto universe.

Anyway, I've noticed that most of my writing is dialog driven so between that and the holidays I may take a bit longer on the next chapter. Till next time. ^_^


	6. Jingle Bells

**AN: Well after no delay and probably unhealthy levels of caffeine, I present chapter six of my masterpiece. I've noticed a few people leaving reviews saying the chapters were too short so I fleshed this one out a bit to make it six pages instead of my usual three or four.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: Jingle Bells<strong>

When morning came Naruto made his way to the training grounds ... where he fell asleep against a post. He and the Hokage had been talking a LONG time. In the end though they'd decided to keep pretty much everything a secret since not many council members would listen past 'Naruto is talking to Kyuubi' before demanding he be put to death. Kyuubi was acting as a sensor for if Madara came back again but other than that there was little they could do right now. It's hard to plan when you have no idea how the enemy even exists, let alone what they plan to do.

Sakura was already there when he arrived, but didn't say anything as he went to sleep and Sasuke arrived a little after he passed out. "Morning Sasuke-Kun!" Chimed Sakura as the boy sat down against the post on the right of Naruto. To Sakura's surprise he too soon fell asleep, having been kept awake by nightmares brought back from hearing about Naruto's clan. With little else to do Sakura prepared to join them.

"Lucky bastard." grumbled a voice right behind her, making her jump into the air. Turning she saw a second Naruto glaring at the one sleeping against the post. "I'm a shadow clone." He explained, noticing her confusion. "I wanted to pick some stuff up at the store, but didn't have enough time before coming here." Grumbling to himself some more 'Naruto' sat down against the last post and pulled a pack of playing cards out of his pocket.

"What are you doing?" Asked Sakura, having little else to do while she waited.

He smiled, glad that he was finally having a conversation with her other than getting hit on the head. She was his first love after all, he would always have some feelings for her. "Erasing the backs so I can make seals on them." He demonstrated with the ace of diamonds, holding the card at the top and letting the ink run off onto the ground. "Supposedly this will help with my chakra control too."

The train of thought that brought him to the idea of using playing cards had gone like this. 'Explosive notes blow up the kunai they're attached to. I don't have much money so I couldn't be blowing up my kunai. How can I throw the note by itself? No Konohamaru, I don't want to play go fish... EUREKA! Wait, why just do explosive notes? MWAHAHAHAHA!'

Sakura watched curiously as he worked. In her opinion it was a bit like watching the sand running out of an hour glass: boring but strangely caught your attention when there was nothing else to do. "Can I try?"

"Sure." He pulled another pack out and tossed it to her. "Make a layer of chakra between the ink and the card, then lift the ink off. Don't worry if you mess up, I've got dozens of other packs."

Sakura blinked. "But if you came strait here, where are they? They can't all me in your pockets."

"I put seals on my pockets to make them bigger on the inside." He explained as he rubbed his eyes. The seals were simple, but required you to remember what you put in there in order to get it out. Of course that was a godsend when looking for a specific card. After he finished about a dozen decks he nodded to himself. "I'm going to dispel, the Boss can finish the rest when he wakes up." With that her disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a pile of at least fifty decks. As he did the real Naruto's head popped up. "wha? Oh, clone popped. Morning Sakura-chan?"

Next to them Sasuke stirred from his slumbers as well. "Hn."

"Morning to you too, Teme." Said Naruto as he went to work on the cards his clone had left behind. Sakura shot him a glare for the insult but didn't yell like usual.

"Morning Sasuke-kun." Said Sakura as she went back to her cards.

Sasuke watched them for a few moments. "What are you two doing?"

"Erasing the backs." they replied in unison, then blinked and glanced at each other.

"You want to try?" Asked Naruto. "It's a good control exercise." Sasuke just shrugged and took a deck. "Oh and guys, I'd appreciate if if you didn't spread my clan's history around. Jiji told me last night that there may be some villages that want to finish what they started." His teammates pales slightly and nodded. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"What kind of seals do you plan to do?" Asked Sakura, opening a new deck.

"For the cards I'll do combat seals." Answered the blond as he finished up his deck. "I plan to use the suits as a guide. Hearts are support, diamonds are defense, spades are offensive and clubs are storage and summoning seals."

"What about the jokers?" Asked Sasuke, showing genuine interest in the idea. When he'd gotten home the previous night he'd realized something: the sharingan could predict and copy any ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu, but it couldn't do anything against seals. There was no molding of chakra to copy and no movements to predict. This could literally be the ace up his sleeve when he fought HIM.

Naruto rubbed his eyes again. "Jokers are for making seals on the spot. I can't predict every seal I'll need beforehand." The three of them continued on in comfortable silence for another hour.

"Yo!" cheered Kakashi as he appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Good timing." Said Naruto, collecting all the decks of cards.

"I got lost on the...wait, what?" Kakashi looked at him in confusion. "How is three hours late good timing?"

"We just finished the last of the cards." explained the blond. "Besides you were four hours late yesterday, so it's an improvement." A wicked smile spread across his face as he put the last of the decks in his pockets. "And I'm working on a summoning seal to get you to us on time anyway, so this won't last too much longer." Tilting his head as if remembering something he pulled a scroll bearing the Hokage's seal from his pocket. "I almost forgot, here."

Knowing Naruto couldn't fake the Hokage's seal Kakashi took the scroll and opened it. When he did he was engulfed in a cloud of purple smoke and sprayed with what smelled like ink. "What was that?" His eye widened as he heard his voice. He had a woman's voice. A sexy woman's voice.

"For the next week you'll sound like a woman any time you wear your mask." Explained Naruto, grinning from ear to ear. "Jiji was more than happy to put his seal on it when I told him what it would do to you."

Kakashi glared at him. "Naruto I..." He blinked, then smiled under his mask. "Oh Naruto-kun, you're such a smart boy. And so handsome too! Oh Naruto-kun! NARUTO-KUN!"

The seal was off in less than two seconds.

"That was sick and wrong." muttered a green Sakura. "We shall never speak of this again."

"Agreed." nodded the two boys as Kakashi put an alarm clock on the post Naruto had been sleeping against.

"The rules of this exercise are simple: get a bell or you go back to the academy." He shook the two bells for emphasis before tying them to his belt. "You have until the alarm goes off."

"Run that by us again." They blinked again and glanced at each other, having all spoken together.

"If you haven't gotten a bell you get sent back." repeated Kakashi, his voice becoming serious. "If you want to pass this test, you'd better come a me with the intent to kill. You'll have no chance otherwise. Ready...BEGIN!"

Sasuke and Sakura immediately jumped back into the trees while Naruto ran forward, kunai in hand. Sighing to himself, Kakashi dodged the attacks with ease. "What's wrong Naruto? You're worse than your file said you were."

"Well, maybe it's because I got woken up at one in the morning to see Jiji and haven't been to bed since." Growled Naruto as he made a few dozen clones. "Ring any bells?"

Kakashi sweat dropped. "Oh right, how did it go?"

"Tell you later." answered a clone as it lunged at him only to get popped by a kunai.

Kakashi nodded and tapped his chin in thought. "Well, I suppose I can even the odds a bit." To the surprise of all the Narutos he pulled out an orange book we should all be familiar with by now. "This should be enough of a distraction to make up for your lack of sleep." He buried his nose in his book and giggled. "Oh Sasha, you naughty, naughty girl."

"PERVERT!" screamed the Narutos, their eyes twitching. Where all his teachers going to be perverts? Half way across the country a white haired old man sneezed, then swore as the occupants of the hot spring he'd been spy on attacked.

**'Oi, you want a hint?'** asked Kyuubi just as he was about to attack with the rest of his clones.

'Hint to what?'

**'Your dad used the same test when he tested Kakashi's genin team.'** Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. Kakashi was his father's student? **'There's a secret reason why there's only two bells.'**

Naruto thought about it for a moment. 'I'll see if I can figure it out on my own, it seems like something I should figure out for myself.'

**'Alright, but I doubt you'll be able to get a bell by yourself.'**

'I can just make more clone...' A grin spread across his face. 'Thanks for the hint.' Kyuubi just chuckled and went back to his game.

Sasuke watched the multi-man-melee between his teacher and his asexually reproducing teammate intently, trying to find the right moment to attack. He knew this fight would be on a whole other level than anything he'd been in before – getting mind raped by his brother didn't count as a fight – but he wouldn't lose now. He couldn't afford to be sent back if he wanted to catch up to HIM.

"We should team up."

Sasuke flinched and turned to see Naruto standing on the branch behind him. Since when the hell was the dope able to sneak up on people? He wore an orange jump suit for Log's sake. ORANGE! "I don't need your help. Just sit back and watch Dope."

Naruto growled. "Look Teme, I got less than an hour of sleep last night so if you don't mind get off your high horse and put that 'genius' mind to use. Has there ever been a team with only two genin? Did you ever hear of even one during Iruka-Senei's lessons?" Actually he had no idea if there had been teams like that. Sure he'd paid attention for the cool, but history was anything but.

Sasuke's eye twitched when Naruto used air quotes on genius and twitched harder when he realized Naruto was right. Iruka had even explained that if the number of graduates wasn't divisible by three then teams of four would be made for the extras. "Alright, where's Sakura?"

Naruto shrugged. "I came to find you first. I would have to convince her to team up, you just have to ask." Sasuke's eye twitched one last time before they jumped off to find Sakura.

Kakashi and the only remaining clone stared each other down across the clearing. Kakashi, thinking the clone was the real Naruto, had avoided hitting the boy too hard. The clone on the other hand had taken to staying at a distance and using throwing weapons in order to keep from popping and letting Kakashi know the real Naruto was somewhere else. The clone didn't know where, but if the boss had to go somewhere in the middle of the fight it must have been important and would need him to act as a decoy for as long as possible. He wouldn't last much longer though. He'd been hit a few times and the replacement he'd done had used up almost all of the chakra he'd been given.

**CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK**

The clone smiled as Kakashi turned around to find another Naruto, this one with chains shooting out of his sleeves.

"This is unexpected." Muttered Kakashi as he registered the pop of a clone dispelling behind him. This could be an interesting fight after all, he'd rarely fought anyone with a weapon like this and even though Naruto was a genin there was still a chance he could be taken by surprise. He was sure as hell surprised when the chains broke into pieces about half way to him, turning into hundreds of tiny bits of shrapnel ready to tear him apart and forcing him to replace himself with a log.

Naruto grimaced, he still couldn't get his chains to work right and now he had no idea where Kakashi had disappeared to. "I'm curious where you learned something like that." Came a voice right behind him. He turned to see Kakashi moments before getting a fist in his stomach.

'Looks like this is the real one.' Thought Kakashi. To his surprise Naruto clung on to his arm for dear life, twisting to plant his feet firmly on Kakashi's side and pull his arm out.

"Too bad for you Kakashi," chuckled Naruto, pulling a bit harder. Kakashi was starting to feel as if he would crack a rib. "but I'm just the distraction!" As soon as the words come out of his mouth Sasuke dropped from the canopy. Kakashi suppressed a smile, maybe they figured out the real test after all. Of course that didn't stop him from backhanding Sasuke in the gut. Like Naruto though, he clung on and forced the arm out.

"Sorry, but I'm the decoy." Kakashi's eye widened in shock as Sakura burst from the trees. The boys pulled hard and this time Kakashi did feel one of his ribs snap, the shock distracting him enough for Sakura to get him in the back with the card she'd palmed. The ace of hearts. A pulse of power radiated out from the card as Kakashi's eyes turned dull and lifeless. He fell to the ground with a thud.

Sakura stared at her teacher in shock. Did she just kill him? "Naruto, what was that seal?"

Naruto groaned and rubbed his stomach. "Stasis seal." he plucked the bells off of Kakashi's belt and tossed them to his teammates. "Puts whoever it's used on in a near death state. It's a required step in sealing a living person, otherwise the shock of going into and coming out of the seal would kill them." Reaching into his pocket he pulled out three blank cards and a brush tipped marker. He didn't understand why sealers would favor ink bottles and brushes when there was such an easier method. Moments later three new seals were made. One he gave to Sasuke and one he pressed onto Kakashi's back. "First aid seal." He explained, activating the third over where Kakashi had punched him.

Sasuke activated his and shivered, the feeling of having the swelling in his muscles reduced so quickly was not something that he was use to. He had to admit though, he was feeling betting. He was still sore, but that felt like it would go away in a little bit. "Why aren't these standard equipment?"

"It takes about as much chakra as then shadow clones to make one." explained Naruto as he activated Kakashi's. "And since most ninja with reserves large enough to mass produce them don't focus on seals it's not that widely known."

Sakura blinked. "Then how do you know about it? In fact, how did you learn any of these seals so quickly?"

Naruto swallowed nervously. "I met a... friend of the family's the other day. He's the one who told me about my clan's history. He's a bit secretive though, so I don't think he'd be willing to teach you two. He even said he wouldn't have taught me anything if he hadn't known the Uzumaki's for so long." Well it was technically true, if Kyuubi hadn't been sealed in Mito and Kushina he wouldn't know any seals to teach.

**'I'd be more than happy to teach them a thing of two.'** sighed Kyuubi. **'The girl would do well as a medic or a genjutsu user considering her control and Teme would probably awaken his sharingan when he saw me.' (Yes, Kyuubi also calls him that.)**

'And the ANBU would be jumping us before either of those things could happen.' Thought Naruto. 'Though I'll pass along the suggestions to Sakura-chan.'

The girl in question stared at Naruto curiously. "Are you alright? You looked liked a bit out of it for a minute there."

"He didn't get much sleep." Answered Sasuke. "and neither did I, so let's finish up." Receiving nods from his teammates he removed the stasis seal.

As quickly as the seal had knocked him out Kakashi woke. He was a bit worried, he knew his rib had snapped, but now he couldn't feel it. "What happened? How long have I been out?"

Naruto grinned. "You've only been out a few minutes. As for what happened, well me and Sasuke took care of your arms while Sakura put a seal on you. Then I got the bells, gave them to Sakura and Sasuke to pass the test and did some first aid before waking you up. Since we all got a bell before the alarm went off-" **BRIIIIIIIIIIING** "...now THAT was good timing!"

Kakashi sweat dropped. "To finish up, you three pass. Congratulations, out of all the teams I've tested you're the first to pass my test." He gestured to the nearby stone, his tone becoming serious. "That stone has the names of some of Konoha's greatest heroes on it. They died in battle, protecting those they cared about. Remember: those who break the rules are trash, but those who would abandon their teammates are even lower than trash." Naruto made his way over to the stone and examined it carefully, a frown appearing on his face as he continued to read. When he finished he shook his head in disappointment and drew chakra to his finger. Like in the classroom there was a dull sizzle as he carved a name into the stone. "Naruto, the names have to be approved by the Hokage."

"I doubt Jiji will have a problem with this name." said Naruto, the tiredness in his voice more pronounced than before. He gave a quick nod to his team before jumping off to bed.

Kakashi knelt down and smiled when he saw the name Naruto had added.

'Kushina U.'

**~~~Omake~~~**

"For the next week you'll sound like a woman any time you wear your mask." Explained Naruto, grinning from ear to ear. "Jiji was more than happy to put his seal on it when I told him what it would do to you."

Kakashi glared at him. "Naruto I..." He blinked, then smiled under his mask. "Oh Naruto-kun, you're such a smart boy. And so handsome too! Oh Naruto-kun! NARUTO-KUN!"

Naruto frowned and made a hand sign. "Sexy Jutsu! Oh Kaka~ashi-Ku~un!" Kakashi hit the ground with a thud, his mask steadily turning red. "Two can play that game Kakashi, but only one of us plays it right." Dispelling the jutsu Naruto turned to find Sasuke on the ground as well and Sakura holding a kunai, her face red with rage. "Oh crap."

**AN: And there we have it. I make no predictions on when the next chapter will come out since my predictions are almost always wrong, but I will say I'll work hard to get it our as soon as possible. Seriously though, one time I said a coin will only ever land on heads or tails... it stopped on its edge. Hasn't worked since though, probably since I'm secretly expecting it will.**

**Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!**


	7. Demon Hammer

**AN: Hello all, I've decided to take some time to reply to some of your reviews. I'm just going down the list. If you've reviewed after Tough Chick's "Es bueno no?" I'm sorry for not replying, but I didn't get your review in time. Anyway, starting from the top.**

**Tough Chick: Lo siento, no hablo español. ¿Hablas Inglés? (Please note this will be my response for all Spanish comments.)**

**Blue Slide Park: I think my success is from updating so often and using plot points few other pick up on, namely seals and the Uzumaki chakra chains.**

**Silently Watching (who actually seems quite talkative): -ahem- I KNOW RIGHT? Those chains are EPIC! Why can't Naruto be using them in the Manga? Even if he doesn't use them for sealing, beating the evil of the Uchiha with the Uzumaki bloodline would be the biggest smack to the face the Lord of Pinkeye could get!**

**TwiceMarked: I always feel Kushina should get more attention in fanfiction. Her personality is far closer to Naruto's, thus making a story where she comes back instead of Minato guaranteed to be hilarious since they'd try to outdo each others pranks until... OK, now I know what I'm writing when Seal Master is finished.**

**Hitsugayatoushirou1220: ThankyouandMerryChistmas.**

**Ability King KK: Oh believe me, Naruto will learn his lesson soon enough.**

**The Double Ostrich Sage: Now this is the kind of review I like most, addressing possible problems with the story without being insulting. I was worried that the seals may be too powerful too, but they get so little attention in the series that I really have no idea what their limits are.  
><strong>

**Azraelean: Thanks.**

**Aaron Leach: Thanks again.**

**That's all the reviews I have on chapter six so far so on to the next chapter.  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter X: Demon Hammer<strong>

Sasuke and Sakura watched their blond teammate with a bit of concern. For the past hour he'd been repeatedly making a shadow clone, pose in his fighting stance and look to the clone who would then check a picture of the exact same pose. Again and again the clones would simply shake it's head and pop, letting Naruto know what had been wrong. Then finally the clone nodded. Jumping for joy, Naruto removed a sledge hammer from one of his cards and hefted it above the clones head.

Now truly concerned, his teammates were about to stop him when something else happened that took their mind off the blond's actions. It was barely noticeable at first, but slowly a red glow spread across his body, bubbling chakra engulfing him. The chakra spread along the shaft of the hammer, concentrating on the head. After a moment it left Naruto completely, the head of the hammer now encased in a glowing red orb.

The boy roared, swinging the sledge hammer down with all his might. Just as it was about to hit the clone it stopped. As if hitting some kind of invisible barrier, the air distorted and shook...

and broke.

Understanding hit them. Knowledge of what they were and what had happened flowed through their minds. The very nature of their being was laid out before them. The clones hadn't been checking a normal picture, it had been a screenshot...

It was Sasuke who spoke first, his face pale and slick with cold sweat. "Y-you broke the Fourth Wall." Under normal circumstances he would have felt angry or scared of his teammate, but now all he could feel was numb disbelief.

Naruto nodded, his wide grin still in place. "Well I had to!" He explained excitedly, turning to you. "I just had to say thank you to all you fans who read and enjoy our story. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: If you hadn't guessed this is just a Christmas Omake and none of this will come up in the story. Bye.<strong>


	8. Family Reunion

**AN: Hello all, King here again to give you a heads up that this chapter will begin the Wave arc. I'll do my best to keep it entertaining, but I will be rushing things along since I've seen this arc too many times. To start off though we'll be seeing the most feared mission of all. MWAHAHAHAHA!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: Family Reunion<strong>

In the crisp early light of dawn three young genin trained tirelessly under the watchful eye of their sensei. Despite having only just started their brows glistened with perspiration under the strain of their workout. In time they could become one of the finest teams in Konoha. Unfortunately for us, that was team Gai and we won't be meeting them until the chunin exams. Instead we join team seven a few hours later as they waited for Kakashi to show up.

They'd settled into a routine over the past week. The three of them would show up on time and, at Kyuubi's suggestion, started to train while waiting for Kakashi. For the most part they'd been working on tree climbing, Naruto explaining that the family friend that taught him seals had suggested the exercise. Sakura of course mastered it on her first try, but Naruto had then instructed her to keep going to build up her reserves while he and Sasuke got the hang of it.

As is common between male teammates, the boys developed a healthy rivalry. They competed in just about everything from how fast they could master the exercise to how well they use it. Naruto's acrobatics show was disqualified on the ground that Sasuke couldn't make shadow clones to preform with. It was still entertaining though, and they made a good bit of money selling tickets.

Next they would work on physical training, usually while wearing what Naruto called resistance seals drawn on their wrists and ankles. They differed from normal weights or gravity seals in that instead of increased weight pulling down the seals made it harder to move in all directions and thus strengthened the muscles that pulled down as well as those the lifted up. As Sakura had put it the first time she felt the effects "It's like the air is thicker." Sakura would tire first and need to recover while the boys began to spar.

In terms of speed and skill Sasuke was better, often landing triple the number of hits as Naruto. But what the blond lacked in finesse the made up for in power and endurance, dealing far more damage on the hits he did land. It simple boiled down to Sasuke learning from proper instruction and Naruto learning from experience.

"Hey Dope, something's been bugging me." stated Sasuke as he ducked beneath Naruto's kick and punched the exposed side.

Naruto winced and raised an eyebrow. "What's that Teme?" Sakura just sighed as she heard them. The Dope/Teme name calling had become more of a tradition than anything else. Naruto had even accused Sasuke of being an imposter the one time he did use Naruto's name. Oddly enough he was right, Konohamaru had wanted to show off his skills with the transformation jutsu.

"How did you manage to sneak up on me during the bell test? You're as subtle as a train wreck." Asked Sasuke, blocking a right hook that sent him sliding back a few inches. He was definitely going to feel that in the morning.

"Pranking!" Cheered Naruto as his teammates face faulted. "I'm serious! Don't you remember the Hokage monument the other day? I had to evade eight ANBU and twelve chunin or jounin for over three hours before I found Iruka-sensei."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "So you _let_ him catch you? Why would you do that?"

"All he ever does as a punishment is make me clean up the mess." He replied, getting back into his stance as Sasuke did the same across from him. "My next choice is Dog. He's about as strict as Iruka-sensei, but doesn't talk since he's an ANBU. You definitely don't want to be caught by Owl, his punishments are just sadistic."

"What did he do?" Sasuke wasn't sure he really wanted to know what an ANBU could think up for punishment. HE had been an ANBU after all and look what HE'D done. If Owl was anything like that...

"He made me stand up strait with my arms out and phone books in each hand for an hour." Naruto shivered, rubbing away the phantom pains in his arms. "If I dropped them or bent my arms the time would start over."

Sasuke sweat dropped. "That doesn't seem like that bad of a punishment."

"I WAS FIVE! THEY WERE PHONE BOOKS!" Yelled Naruto. "I was there for four hours and only got off then because Owl's shift was over and Dog showed up to replace him."

Just then Kakashi appeared in his usual puff of smoke while Naruto frowned. Despite his best efforts the only summoning seals that could lock onto Kakashi specificity would either need to be drawn in Kakashi's blood or he loaded with Kakashi's chakra, both of which the Jounin refused to help with. Everything else Naruto knew would be easy for Kakashi to resist.

"Ready for your mission for today?" His students groaned. The missions – if they could be called that – were little more than manual labor. Raking leaves, picking up trash, painting fences and other boring jobs. They wouldn't even get to catch The Fire Damyo's Wife's Cat – surprisingly, that really was the name written on his tag – again thanks to Naruto.

Flashback

Hidden in the foliage, three shadows jumped through the forest with barely a sound. Their target was elusive, known throughout the village for his evasiveness. This, above all else, was their greatest test of skill. Naruto screamed wildly and jumped on the poor creature. Hissing and scratching wildly, the cat tried it's hardest to get away. Then something completely unexpected happened.

**'Tora?'**

'Uncle Kyuubi?'

Naruto held the now still cat at arms length, staring in wide eyed disbelief. 'What?'

Kyuubi growled in frustration.** 'Where have you been young man? Your mother has been worried sick!'**

'It wasn't my fault Uncle!' pleaded the cat now named Tora. 'The humans caught me and gave me to their queen as a pet. I've been trying to get away ever since, but they keep catching me and passing me on like some kind of family heirloom.'

**'I can't really fault you on that.'** admitted Kyuubi as he mentally gestured to Naruto.** 'He's my third, so I understand what it's like. Hey Kit, do you think you could help my cute little nephew out?'** Naruto just nodded dumbly, unsure of how to process this new information.** 'There you go, we'll have you back to your mother in no time. Now here's what we're going to do...'**

In the end Naruto was able to convince his teammates that he stuck a seal on Tora that calmed wild animals enough to interact with safely, though animals that were hunting you instead of attacking you would still want to eat you. He explained that Tora wouldn't act up or attack unless he was in pain or felt that he was in danger. He demonstrated such a seal on a low flying bird and they happily made their was back to Konoha.

When they entered the Hokage's office they noticed Tora begin to fidget in Naruto's arms and as soon as the fire damyo's wife entered he was hissing and spitting like before. "Oh what's wrong my baby?" she cooed, trying to take Tora away.

"He's scared of you." Explained Naruto nervously as he stepped out of her reach. "The seal I have on him would keep him calm unless he was literally scared for his life. I can't in good conscious let you take him."

"Nonsense!" she chirped as he snatched Tora away and began squeezing the life out of the poor thing. "My sweet baby knows I would never hurt him."

"FOR LOG'S SAKE WOMAN LET HIM BREATHE!" Shocked at Naruto's shouting she dropped Tora, who quickly hid behind the blond's legs. "No wonder he's scared of you, I would be too if someone did that to me. Look, not only do cats, like most animals, _need to breathe_, they HATE having their movements restricted. Something cozy that they can get in and out of is fine, but that... just no."

She watched in disbelief as Tora shivered at her approach. "He's really scared of me?" She shook slightly, then nodded to herself. "I understand, may I ask you to take my baby in?"

Naruto shook his head. "My apartment doesn't allow pets, but I know someone who can take him." After a few more minutes arrangements had been made for Naruto to take Tora to his 'friend' who would look after Tora from then on.

Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Sarutobi watched the scene in numb disbelief and could only mutter incoherently as the fire damyo's wife (seriously, she needs a name) payed for the mission and insisted on giving Naruto a bonus for helping her baby so much. Once it was all finished Sarutobi dismissed them except for Naruto. "That was a very risky thing you did today." He chuckled.

Naruto nodded. "You know the rumor that this little guy is really a demon?"

He laughed heartily. "Yes, yes, it seems quite foolish now. The poor little thing was just scared after all." Naruto remained silent. "It was just a rumor, right?"

Naruto placed Tora on the desk so he was face to face with the old man. "May I present Tora, Son of the Nibi no Neko and nephew of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

End Flashback

Naruto chuckled at the memory as he painted the picket fence. After getting to know the cat he had come to like the little fur ball. He also liked the crowd of shinobi throwing a party in his honor for getting rid of the beast. Unfortunately Kakashi had insisted he wasn't old enough to drink and couldn't attend. Truth be told several people were worried what the boy would be like when he was drunk considering how he acted when he was sober. Half the alcohol consumed that night was because of the ideas that came to mind when they thought about it.

"Looks like we're done here." announced Kakashi, peeking over his book to check their work. "Let's go check back, if we're fast be may be able to do one more before the day is over." His students groaned and began walking back to the missions office.

"Can't we have a cool mission?" complained Naruto. "All we ever do is chores! Can't we do something interesting for once?"

To his surprise Kakashi seemed to consider it. "You three have completed the necessary number of D-ranks to get a C-rank." He said thoughtfully. "I suppose we can try a C-rank to see how you've improved." Naruto swore then and there he would never prank Kakashi again... unless he really deserved it. "Hokage-sama, I'd like a C-rank next please."

The Hokage nodded and pulled a scroll from the pile near him. "Here you go, you'll be escorting a bridge builder to Wave. Please come in Tazuna."

With that a drunken old man we're heard about in just about every Naruto Fanfiction there is entered the room. "Are these three really going to be any good? They look like they just got out of school."

"It's been about a week." provided Sasuke, causing Tazuna to sweat drop. "This will be our first C-rank mission. We won't disappoint you." Naruto and Sakura nodded in agreement while Kakashi just had his nose in his book. Anyone else wondering if they'll make some kind of spin off show based on Pervy-sage's work? I'd love to see that. Or even if they just release the novels.

**Make Out Paradise: The Audio Book**

…

…

...

Oh look they're at the Demon Brother's puddle!

**SSSSHLISH**

"KAKASHI!" Screamed Naruto in absolute horror at the sight of his teacher being cut to ribbons. Shaking with rage he lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes and his arms slightly behind him. "You bastards made a big mistake." his arms swept forward, his chains whipping out in wide arks. Like in the bell test they shattered, but he knew that would happen. Even after a week of training he still couldn't figure out what was wrong, but now there was an uncountable number of sharp pointy metal bits heading strait for the wide eyed demon brothers. "Never copy an Uzumaki!"

Be brothers darted under the cloud of shrapnel (they're ninja, they can do that) and made a mad dash towards Tazuna only for Sasuke to kick one of the brothers away, the other being pulled by their chain. Naruto swore under his breath, the brothers were now between him and the rest of the team, meaning he would hit them if he used his chains again. Same problem with most of his seals, they'd put his allies in danger.

The brothers renewed their charge, the spiked chin between them glistening with poison. Again Sasuke tried to kick them away but – fool them once shame on you, fool them twice shame on them – the blow was dodged and a razor sharp claw thrust toward Sasuke's exposed side.

**CLANG**

A kunai shot from the bushes, knocking the gauntlet off just enough to save Sasuke. "Wow Naruto, and here I thought you would be upset if I died." Said Kakashi in a bored voice as he appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"That would imply I was fooled by your replacement." Grinned Naruto.

Know that they didn't stand a chance against a Jounin the brothers detached the chain and rushed forward one more time, intent on taking Tazuna with them to hell.

"Oh no you don't." A quick body flicker and double gut punch later Kakashi had the brothers tied to a tree. He turned to Tazuna slowly, his eyes shimmering his a way that made the old man shiver. "Now, would you care to tell me why hunter nin would be after a simple bridge builder?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:Owl's punishment was something I had to do as a child as well, admittedly with smaller books. I wanted to show Owl wasn't really sadistic, just went a little overboard with Naruto's punishment. Though in a world full of ninja I have to wonder if if would be considered too much.<strong>

**In this story the Biju consider themselves siblings, Kyuubi being the oldest and Ichibi being the youngest. Technically they're nonuplets since all nine of them were born at the same time, but hey who's going to argue with them? More on the Biju family tree later.**


	9. When Everything Changes

**AN:-comes up running- Sorry -pant- I missed -pant- Wednesday's update, I ran 100 laps around Konoha to make up for it.**

**The wave arc has always bugged me, it's used far too often and rarely goes differently than what happens in the series other than Haku and/or Zabuza surviving. I intend to fix this.**

**Since everyone is asking: yes I will be using the Kyuubi's real name.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: When Everything Changes<strong>

Tazuna sweat heavily under Kakashi's gaze, somehow feeling he would be less nervous if the man was upset instead of just standing there apathetically. "Well, you see... look, the readers liked how we skipped before, can we do that again?"

Kakashi shrugged and turned to his students. "Fine by me, what about you three?"

"Whatever." sighed Sasuke.

"Fine with me." agreed Sakura.

"We actually get a choice?" questioned Naruto as the fourth wall slid into place with a massive bang.

Happy that his students would continue the mission and help the needy village Kakashi cast a proud eye over them. He sighed when he spotted his blond student. "Naruto, what are you doing with the demon brothers?"

Naruto looked up from the scrolls in front of him. "Looting the bodies, sealing what I get and posing them in an embarrassing position for when they get found by the ANBU." Kyuubi wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek. They grow up so fast. "We beat them, so we get their stuff, right? Spoils of victory and all that."

There was a moment of silence as what he said got processed. "Naruto, you can't do this."

"Don't worry, I know you have first pick since you were the one to finish them. I'm just sealing everything so we can split it later." Grinned the blond as he stuffed the brother's hands down each others pants and pulled out a marker. "Anyone want to draw on their faces?" His teammates declined with a groan, though Tazuna took him up on the offer. Naruto also threw in a seal that made them talk as if they'd been breathing helium. When they finished the group set off again.

A few minutes later Sasuke thought of something. "Hey Dope, why didn't you use that Stasis seal on them like we did for Kakashi?"

Naruto chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Have you ever made something while you were half asleep and after you got some rest, realized what you created was a crime against nature that should be burned to ashes, compressed into a diamond, sealed in a concrete filled safe and dropped into the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean? Something like that should be in the Sistine Chapel compared to what I made."

Kakashi stopped and turned to look Naruto in the eye. "On a scale of one to ten, how dead should I be?"

Naruto took a step back only to have Kakashi body flicker right behind him. "I have no idea why we didn't get reduced to a smoldering crater." He replied quickly, not daring to turn around.

Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other nervously. "What about the first aid seals you gave Sasuke-kun?"

"The radiation should have worn off a few days ago." He supplied in a hopeful tone. Kakashi groaned and knocked the blond out with a quick chop to the neck. This mission was going to be enough of a headache without Naruto... being Naruto.

* * *

><p>Inside Naruto's Mind<p>

Naruto groaned, holding his head as he tried to get his bearings. "What hit me?"

**"Kakashi."** Replied Kyuubi in a bored tone. **"He apparently didn't like the fact you should all be dead a thousand times over because of those seals you made."**

Naruto tilted his head sleepily, remembering what Kyuubi was talking about. "Oh right, thanks Fluffy."

**"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"** The boy's mindscape shook at the intensity the his roar.

"Well what am I SUPPOSE to call you?" Yelled Naruto right back at him. "I don't want to get in the habit of calling you Kyuubi in case I slip up somehow and I'm horrible at naming things. Do you want me to call you Fluffernutter instead?"

Kyuubi rolled his eyes. **"I don't know, maybe you could USE MY NAME!"**

Naruto blinked in confusion. "You had a name all this time and you never told me?" **BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.** "Hey! Stop hitting your head against the bars and tell me what it is!"

**"I name am Kurama."** Babbled the fox, slightly cross eyed. **"Mmmm, yummy brain damage."**

Naruto stared a him a bit concerned. "Are you going to be alright?"

Kurama giggled. **"I fast make better. See? Head bone thing already healing and we shall never speak of this again, understand?"**

Naruto nodded, he'd learned a while ago where Kurama drew the line. When one of them said it wan't to be spoken of again, the subject wasn't spoken of again. Unless absolutely necessary or course. They had enough respect for each other to at least do that. He also dropped the subject because he knew there would eventually be... events that he'd want privacy for and the only thing he'd be able to do is ask Kurama not to peek. "Right then, I'm going to wake up now."

* * *

><p>A few hours later<p>

Sakura in the center of the small fishing boat, bored out of her mind with the slow pace they were forced to travel at. Looking for something to take her mind off it she turned her attention to Sasuke, who had chosen to lay in the bottom of the bow, enjoying the warm sun before they hit the thick fog around Wave. He'd changed over the past week, talking more a sometimes smiling on rare occasions. Maybe it was because of their rivalry, or because the understood what the other had been though, but he and Naruto had become... not quite friends, but closer than they had been.

Her gaze shifted to Naruto, who was lazily trailing his finger through the water and smiling every now and again at whatever it was he was thinking. He too had changed, becoming more thoughtful and patient. He still acted the fool, often using Sasuke as a strait man, but there were times he'd be so lost in thought he wouldn't notice when the others arrived and usually when he arrived fist, she'd find him sitting against one of the posts, tracing sealing symbols in the air.

Sakura herself had also grown, her fangirl tendencies suppressed enough to not squeal over every little thing Sasuke did and as a result had managed to have decent conversations with him. Her chakra reserves had increased dramatically from their training and at Naruto's suggestion (really Kurama's) she's started practicing to improve what little genjutsu she knew. Pretty much just the normal clone jutsu. To practice she'd send the clone out to meet the others and wait for them to point out a mistake. At first she could barely hold the clone a minute before the edges started to blur but now it was usually her hair not moving in an odd breeze or a thin blade of grass sticking out of her foot that tipped the boys off. Sometimes she even managed to get through the usual meet and greet without them pointing out any imperfections.

Another smile flashed across Naruto's face and she wondered what he was thinking about.

'I'M ON A BOAT! I'M ON A BOAT! EVERY BODY LOOK AT ME 'CAUSE I'M SAILING ON A BOAT!'

**'What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor, ear~ly in the morning?'**

'It's up, up away in the mornin', oh the tears my poor mother has cried. But the sea, she had called me and you may say I'm balmy but I went to her just like a bride. And it's up and away in the mornin'"

**'and on the good ship venus...'**

He was probably just thinking about seals again.

Team seven plus Tazuna stared up at the massive sword that had almost cut them all apart. Atop the massive sword appeared a shirtless man, the lower half of his face wrapped with bandages and cow print legwarmers on his arms and legs. "Huh, I missed." He chuckled menacingly, though the effect was lost when Naruto ran up the tree to inspect the seals along the hilt.

"Beautiful! An iron extraction and integration seal." he squealed happily as he ran his fingers over the intricate symbols. "And those carbon ratio monitors. Oh I love Kiri seals, sword/seal combination at its finest!" Before the man could do anything the boy had jumped back down to the rest of his group and drawn a Kunai. "No Brows, give me your shaft!" There was a moment of silence. "Realized the moment I said it." He announced in the same exited voice as before. "We shall never speak of this again."

Zabuza's eye twitched, he was the demon of the bloody mist, how dare this kid just walk up and demand his sword. "Who the hell do you think I am?"

Naruto glanced between Zabuza and Kakashi a few times. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Kakashi, would you?" Both men sweat dropped. "I guess not… there goes my theory of talking clearly while having your mouth covered is a bloodline."

"I'm the Demon of the Bloody Mist, Zabuza Momochi!" He shouted angrily. "I was going to give you a chance to give up and hand the bridge builder over, but now I'm just going have fun with you all!" He jumped down, tearing his sword from the tree as he fell and jumped back onto the water's surface. "Hidden Mist Jutsu." The fog around them thickened until they could barely see a few inches in front of their faces.

"Please tell me you used your blood to change the seal." whispered Sakura, as the loud clang of metal meeting metal rang through the clearing. Apparently the experienced shinobi had found each other.

"Sure, right after I painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa." Hissed Naruto, trying to figure out which way the noise was coming from. "Damn, this fog must be messing with my senses, I can't tell where they are." As if in reply the fog lifted to reveal Kakashi had managed to stab Zabuza with his Kunai.

**SPLASH**

"Water clone." Muttered Kakashi with a bit of irritation. "I should have known." Hearing the tell tale whoosh of a blade he ducked under the it and the battle resumed.

Naruto's grip tightened around his weapon as he watched them fight. Normally he would be amazed or frightened, but when he saw his teacher he could only think one thing. 'He has a sharingan!' He began to shake with anger, the thought of everything those damned eyes had done boiling to the surface of his mind.

Zabuza chuckled, feeling the boy's KI. It had little power behind it, but he was surprised the brat could even make him feel anything in the first place. "Your student seems to have the right stuff, if he'd been born in Kiri he'd of had a chance to become a decent shinobi instead of the fool he is." Kakashi remained silent, not liking that one of his students was eager to kill. "What's wrong, thinking about your first kill too? I remember mine like it way yesterday, all those bright young faces screaming for mercy as I cut them up." Still Kakashi remained silent, though his attacks became more and more intense. "Did I hit a nerve? Were you friends with a piece of trash that got killed because he didn't have the guts to be-" He was cut off by Kakashi suddenly going berserk, beating the crap out of Zabuza with his bare hands. When he finally stopped seeing red Zabuza was pinned against a tree, ready to be killed. Note to self: NEVER INSULT OBITO. **EVER.**

**THUD THUD**

Haku shows up.

**THUD**

Kakashi overused his sharingan.

You've probably read this scene enough times to know what happens (I know I have).

* * *

><p>When Kakashi awoke the next morning there were a few things he needed to discuss with his students, Zabuza's survival being only part of it. There was one thing that he didn't like about their actions during the attack. "Naruto, were you aware you were giving off killing intent?"<p>

"What's that?" Asked the blond irritably, he'd had a short temper ever since the fight.

"Killing intent is an aura given off when a person has a very intense desire to kill." explained the silver haired man evenly. "While I was fighting Zabuza you, for some reason, wanted to kill strongly enough for me and Zabuza to feel it."

"I-is that what t-that was?" asked Sakura shakily, she'd been closest to Naruto and felt the full force of his KI. "I n-never want to feel t-that again."

Naruto's expression softened as he watched her. "Sorry, Sakura-chan." he said sofly. "I didn't know I was doing that."

Kakashi nodded. "I'm curious, why were you so eager to kill Zabuza?"

Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's related to an S-rank secret." Kakshi's eyebrow rose, but he said nothing. He may not know what the Kyuubi had against Zabuza, but he couldn't force Naruto to tell him or anyone else about the beast. "If it's alright with you I'd prefer to get Jiji's advice before I tell anyone."

**'Why not just tell them.'** Asked Kurama, taking a break from his game. He needed Naruto to increase the score cap on it anyway, nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine wasn't nearly enough to be the max score. **'Kakashi will understand if you explain it. Teme deserves to know why you hate his clan and incase he gets his eyes and if you're telling them you mayn't as well tell Sakura.'**

'I don't want to tell them yet.' Thought Naruto back at him. 'I don't want to lose what few friends I've managed to make.'

Kurama shook his head and laid down on the soft blue grass. **'Suite yourself, but remember: I true friend wouldn't care that I'm sealed in you.'**

Kakashi watched his student's face with a bit of concern. It wasn't unusual for him to be lost in thought, but the range of emotion flashing across his face was closer to having a conversation than thinking. Could it be he was communicating with the Kyuubi? "Anyway we should probably start training so we'll be ready when they come back."

* * *

><p>Within the secret chambers of Gato's tower Zabuza lay motionless on a soft bed, waiting for his body to recover from the near death state his young tool had put him in to save his life and yes I AM trying to pad the length of the story by going into detail and repeating stuff you already know. He knew Gato would try to pull something after that failure, but didn't know how. Would the short old man be stupid enough to come himself and try to intimidate the seasoned swordsman? Would he send some of his cannon fodder to rough him up? Maybe he'd do the smart thing and send an assassin.<p>

Slowly the door slid open and a man entered, the light behind him keeping Zabuza from making out any details. He could see the man had spiky hair and was about as tall as he was. "Hello Momochi, Gato is disappointed in your failure." He stated in an emotionless voice. "He's decided to terminate you."

"Is that so?" Asked Zabuza in an amused voice despite the very real sense of fear that was creeping through him. This man wasn't going to back down, he was a man who'd removed his emotions or had them ripped out. He wouldn't be stopped by anything small and Zabuza was in no condition to fight big. "My assistant and I will leave as soon as he get's back, if you want to help you can start packing."

The man shook his head. "No, you will be terminated." Zabuza's hand shot up from under the blanket gripping a Kunai, but the man knocked the blade away, a dull clang ringing from where it had hit his arm. The man's hands reached out at impossible speeds and tightened around Zabuza's throat. The last thing he saw was a single tear trailing down the still emotionless face of his killer.

* * *

><p><strong>~~Omake~~<strong>

"I'm the Demon of the Bloody Mist, Zabuza Momochi!" He shouted angrily. "I was going to give you a chance to give up and hand the bridge builder over, but now I'm just going to kill you all!"

Inside the seal Kyuubi was jumping around excitedly. 'Let me take over for a bit.' he pleaded in Naruto's head.

'I see where you're going with this.' chuckled the blond. "A demon? Really?"

"Really!"

"REALLY?"

"REALLY!"

"Release restraint, Level One." Zabuza stepped back in fear as Naruto was encased in swirling blood red chakra, his face pitch black except for two round white eyes and a thin jagged mouth that seemed to radiate a ghostly white light. (four tailed form without the four tails) **"Then I will now teach you how REAL demons do battle!"**

'Oh the irony.' laughed both Naruto and Kyuubi as they proceeded to scare the crap out of Zabuza.

(I love Hellsing and TFS only made it better)

* * *

><p><strong>AN: See? I told you I would fix the wave arc stagnation corrupting fanfictions everywhere. Who is this new man? Where did he come from? What will he do? Will our heroes stand a chance against him? Will I regret killing off Zabuza? Should I not write while doped up on cold meds? Next time on Seal Master.<strong>

**Just a heads up, I'm going to be moving soon so expect some delays between updates. See ya.  
><strong>


	10. Hope Rides Alone

**AN: Wow, over a whole week without updating. Sorry for the delay, but between work, sickness and getting ready to move I haven't had much time for writing. Updates will be sporadic at best for a little while, but rest assured I'll still be writing.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9: Hope Rides Alone<strong>

Two days later the bright morning light burned through the morning fog over wave to find a small wooded clearing near a small stream where Naruto Uzumaki sat against a tree truck, lazily tracing shapes in the air and dirt. Like usual he'd arrived before his teammates and taken the opportunity to go over some of the sealing symbols he'd learned from Kurama. In the dirt he'd drawn the seal from Zabuza's massive sword, or at least the best recreation he could. He studied hit harder than any other seal he'd learned, believing he may hold the secret to why his chakra chains wouldn't work properly.

'Here.' he thought, pointing to where the seal made a series of sharp turns. 'That's the seal that fixes the sword with the iron this seal,' he pointed to a series of overlapping loops that would be curled around the hilt, 'draws from blood. The secret has to be here somewhere.'

Kurama sighed, he'd been listening to the boy's thoughts going back and forth for over an hour. **'The result is similar, but the process behind it is completely different. You're trying to created chains from chakra while this seal takes iron and carbon from blood to fix a sword.'** He didn't let it show, but the chain problem was bothering him too. He'd known two Uzumaki's who'd had no problems with them at all, why was his current host having trouble?

"Morning Naruto." Called Sakura, shaking them from their thoughts.

"Morning Sakura-chan." Greeted the blond as he gave her a analyzing glance. "Are you still practicing genjutsu or is this the real you?"

"You'll just have to figure that out yourself." she replied sticking out her tong, then looked curiously at the seal he had drawn. "What does that one do?"

"It's the seal from Zabuza's sword. I'm trying to use it to get my chains to work." He let a few feet of chain flow from his hand. "I can get them to form fine, but when I try to use them..." he flicked his wrist, the chain flicking like a whip before shattering. "that happens. They're just too brittle."

Sakura examined some to the pieces. The metal itself was about a quarter inch thick and looped into inch long links. On the outside edge of every other loop was a small spike that she guessed was to help get a better grip on the thing being sealed, or more morbidly, to tear the target apart. "I'm not sure if it helps, but with normal metal you do something called tempering to keep it from being brittle. A girl I know named Tenten would be able to explain it better, she works at the weapons shop I go to." A sly smiled spread across her face. "On second thought you'd better stay clear of her, she'd turn into a fan girl if you told her you could make weapons out of thin air." Naruto just blushed and chuckled nervously as Sasuke arrived. "Good morning Sasuke-kun."

"Morning Sakura," he grunted. "Dope."

"Teme." Nodded Naruto.

"New seal?" Asked the Uchiha, crouching down to inspect what the two were looking at. "What's it do?"

"It's the seal off of Zabuza's sword." answered Sakura. Once he had been filled in on what they were talking about Sasuke picked up a bit of chain and examined it. "What do you think could be wrong?"

"Tried making it slower?" inquired Sasuke as he broke one of the links he was holding. "If it is related to tempering you may just be trying to make them too fast." Naruto shrugged and made another length of chain flow from his hand about half as fast as the previous one. This time the chain didn't even last long enough for him to flick his wrist, breaking apart under it's own weight. "I guess not."

"I'll figure it out eventually, until then I still have my seal cards." he flicked his wrist and a fan of cards appeared in his hand. "I never get tired of doing that."

"We know." Sighed Sakura, he did the same trick every time he mentioned his cards. "So what kinds do you have now? I know you said the stasis and first aid was out."

"For now." confirmed the blond. "I'm not quite at that level yet, but I'll get there eventually. Right now though, I have explosive notes, storage seals, and various combinations of the two. I really wanted to make one with the lightning generating seal on it, but there's not enough room on the cards."

"Why would you combine storage and explosive seals?" Asked Sasuke, taking a seat against Naruto's tree.

Naruto shot him a surprised glance. "Not that hard to figure out Teme, load it with senbon or something like that and use a low powered blast to make a needle trap. I'm a little pressed for space though, there's just not enough room on the cards to fit complex stuff." His teammates just nodded in understanding. "So what should we work on today?"

"Kakashi-sensei said to work on water walking and nature manipulation." replied Sakura. "I still can't believe you have wind nature Naruto, that's supposed to be really rare."

"I'm more surprised you bother to call him sensei." chuckled Naruto. "I mean, what has he taught us?"

Sakura bopped him lightly on the head. "He's teaching us nature manipulation baka." They both chuckled a bit as the three of them went down to the stream to continue water walking.

Sakura, as always, got it on her first try the day before, but like with the tree climbing exercise continued to do it in order to build up her reserves. Her male teammates were only now getting the hang of it and were making a competition of who could go out across the wide, yet shallow waters the furthest. Currently it was Sasuke in the lead, the place where he had finally gone under marked by Sakura. Taking a bit of a rest, Sasuke looked over at his blond teammate struggling to stay above the water. "Hey Dope, did you mean what you said last night?"

Flashback

Slowly the young boy peeked through the door to check who was in his house. "Inari, come in and say hello." He looked up at his smiling mother, a bit confused. "These are the ninja who'll protect your grandfather while he finishes the bridge."

"Mom, they're going to die." He voice was calm, he was just stating a simple fact as far as he was concerned.

"Yeah right." Laughed Naruto. "Have some faith kid, we got the old man here safely and we'll keep his safe."

"Shut up!" Yelled Inari, the anger he held just below the surface coming to a boil. Maybe it was because they didn't understand what Gato could do, maybe it was just that the blond could smile, but something about him struck a chord with Inari. "No one can stand up to Gato, he's too strong and has too many men."

To the surprise of everyone there Naruto chuckled. "A few things wrong with that. First," he made his favorite handsign and the room was filled with Narutos. "shadow clones. I can outnumber them a hundred to one in an instant."

"Second," continued one of the clones. "Gato himself is probably as weak coward that hides behind his goons. If you'd hired an assassin this could be over in a day. Hell, I could do it right now, just say the word."

"Third," said another clone as they all took out kunai. "When people fight they don't just fight to win. They always want to 'not lose' more. We clones don't have that problem." As one they stabbed themselves, leaving only the real Naruto, a pained expression on his face.

"Their memories and experiences come back to me." He explained, all humor gone from his voice. "I remember dying each and every time they do. After all that I've realized there's worse things than death here."

End Flashback

"Do you really remember them dying?"

"Yeah, I do." Sighed the blond, his usual smile fading. "Not just remember, sometimes I can still feel what they felt when they died. That's why I only have one or two experimenting with seals at a time, too many would fry my brain." His smile slowly came back, a far off look in his eyes. "Still, some of them were pretty amazing. Getting dropped in deep space from a faulty teleport seal, it's just…" He shook his head, trying to find the right words. "Here we have city lights and the moon making the stars seem dim, but out there where there's nothing it's beautiful." He sighed again and tried to take a few more steps out toward Sakura. "It's a shame I suck at genjutsu, I'd have loved to show you two." His lapse in concentration cost him as his feet began to sink into the water. "No no no no no no no."

SPLASH

The three genin blinked in surprise. While Naruto hadn't managed to stay above water, his last desperate burst had sent him skating across the surface. Slowly Sasuke rose and walked to the riverbank, a small smile on his face. "Dope, any chance you know how to play an instrument?"

Once they were prepared for Sasuke's plan, they all refused to call it a prank for various reasons, they began working on nature manipulation. Sakura, having earth nature, was trying to turn her leaves to dust, Sasuke was trying to set his on fire, and Naruto was trying to cut his in half between his palms. Again Sakura was the furthest ahead, able to make hers hard and brittle. Sasuke and Naruto were having no luck however.

Sasuke and Sakura looked up as Naruto hissed in pain, shaking his hands as if burned. Indeed when he stopped they saw his palms were covered in blisters. "Dope, I'm the one who has the fire affinity." Joked Sasuke as he pulled some ointment out of his bag. "Here."

"They're chakra burns Teme." Grumbled Naruto as he inspected the ointment. Shaking his head he handed it back to his teammate. "Keep it, I'll be fine in a few minutes." He held his hands out and sure enough he blisters were slowly but surely shrinking. "Not the first time this has happened."

"Since when can you do that?" Asked Sakura in amazement.

Naruto just shrugged. "It's always been a problem, I keep using too much chakra."

"Not that." She deadpanned as she took his hands. "THIS. Is it some kind of seal or something?"

Naruto blinked. "I'm not sure I follow."

"She means: why are you healing so fast?" Explained Sasuke, putting down his leaf in favor of inspecting his teammates healing. Noticing Naruto's confusing he raised an eyebrow. "You do know you're healing than normal, right?"

"No." answered the blond in confusion as he looked at his hands. "I've always healed this fast, I thought everyone did."

Sakura shook her head thoughtfully. "That bad of a chakra burn should take two or three days to heal. What about other injuries?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Depends on the injury, a decent sized cut will take an hour or so. That one time I got a kunai through my hand took the rest of the day, but it was fine in the morning." He raised an eyebrow at his teammates shock. "What? I was try to learn to juggle kunai and it came down on the sharp end."

Sakura grabbed his hands again and inspected the backs. "There's not even a scar! Most people would need surgery just to be able to use their hands correctly after something like that. How can you just heal overnight?" She looked up to see his eyes twitching in pain and realized she was grabbing his blisters. "Sorry." she quickly let go of his hands.

He sighed in relief and again inspecting his hands. The blisters had by now shrunk to about half their original size. "I've always been like this though. Why didn't anyone tell me sooner?" He turned his attention inward. 'Is this because your in me?'

**'No, it's another of the Uzumaki traits.'** Replied Kurama. **'Vitality remember? Mito lived well past a hundred years old and your mother survived having me forcibly removed. I think it has something to do with natural selection and surviving experimental seals.'**

Naruto frowned. 'So besides massive reserves, do I get anything from having you?'

**'Well,'** drawled the fox, a bit put out that he expected more. Not that there wasn't more, just the fact that he expected there to be. **'Given time I can teach you to shape shift like in the old fox wife legends. Not just girls.'** he added quickly, he didn't want the boy to turn out like his godfather. **'anything really. Oh and you'll also have really good luck at games of chance.'**

'I can see how shape shifting would be useful, but why luck?'

**'Ask me after your fist trip to a casino.'** chuckled the fox.

"Naruto!" Yelled Sakura, shaking the boy lightly. "What the hell just happened? You just zoned out all of a sudden."

Naruto shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. "Sorry, I was thinking. I remember my seal teacher said Uzumakis were suppose to have amazing vitality, maybe that has something to do with this." His teammates just nodded, they felt something was off but didn't say anything. "Anyway I think I'm healed enough to keep practicing." He cheered and grabbed another leaf, earning sighs from Sasuke and Sakura.

When Kakashi arrived Sakura had managed to get her leaf to start falling apart, Sasuke's was smoldering and Naruto's had a small cut in it. "Good work you three, I'm impressed how fast you're improving."

"Well of course." Cheered Naruto as he stood and stretched. "You've got the Uchiha prodigy, the Kinochi of the year and the future hokage. How could we not be good?"

"Says the dead last." Said Sasuke with a smile.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I wedgie ANBU while wearing a solid block of orange. Speaking of which, if anyone asks I was at your house the night before we left, ok Teme?"

Kakashi sighed tiredly, he was starting to miss being an ANBU captain. Though Naruto's pranks were one of the reasons he returned to normal service in the first place. "What did you do this time Naruto?"

"Nothing." Replied Naruto with a smile that fooled no one. "I didn't break into ANBU HQ and coat all the masks with itching powder, if that's what you're thinking." He flinched as a bit of KI rolled off of Kakashi.

"You will not do anything like that again." His student's took a step back in fear as he glared a death glare at the blond. "An ANBU's mask is more than a disguise. When they're on duty that mask is their identity. Their name." Naruto swallowed hard, realizing just how much of an attack his prank had been. After his own experiences with the villagers and with Kurama, he knew just how much a name could mean. But like that the KI was gone, the feeling of being slowly crushed by icy cold water replaced with the warmth of sunlight. "Now how are you three doing with water walking?"

What followed was possibly the most confusing hour of Kakashi's life as he watched his students slide, skate and stroll across the river in what was possibly the first ninjutsu assisted synchronized swimming act with shadow clone kazoo orchestra accompaniment. He certainly hoped it was thing first.

Later that night

The dining room was once again locked uncomfortable silence as Naruto and Inari clashed, though far less verbally than last night. Instead they'd decided to settle their differences like children and stare at each other.

Sakura's eyes fluttered across the room, looking for something to break the tension. Her eyes fell on a photo on the wall, the corner torn off where someone had once been. "What's up with that photo?" She immediately regretted her question as the residents of the house suddenly gloomed. Before anything else could be said Inari ran off, tears running from his eyes.

"That," muttered Tazuna, his eyes misting in painful memory. "was the last hero of Wave. He was Inari's stepfather and a hero among our village. He would always say 'If something is truly important, than protect it. Protect it with both arms, even when it's painful.' He saved Inari from drowning when he was a child and the village when the dam burst. Then Gato came." He took a long swig of his booze, tears welling in his eyes. "The crowd, Gato gathered them there to watch their hopes destroyed. They watched them beat him...break him...his once strong arms destroyed. He was a warning to everyone who'd try to oppose Gato." Again the room fell into silence, fear and horror filling those who were only now learning about the family's past. Well, most of them.

Naruto stood abruptly, his chair falling back. Without a word he left, only stopping long enough to meet Kakashi's eye and give a small shake. Just enough to say 'don't come after me.'

"Sensei, is Naruto alright." Asked Sakura after about an hour, honestly concerned about her teammate. "He get's so lost in thought sometimes he doesn't notice the world around him. At first I didn't pay much attention to it, but he did it in the middle of a conversation today."

Kakashi nodded. "I've seen him do it too. I'll talk to him later, but for now he needs to blow off some steam.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Anyone care to guess what I'm drawing inspiration from? I'll give you a hint: Google the chapter title. I really can't hear them without thinking of the wave arc and vice versa.<strong>

**Yes, Naruto once again has a healing factor. To give you an idea on how strong: cuts and scrapes will heal in the time most people's would clot, broken bones will take a few days and need to be properly set and splinted but a lost limb won't grow back.**

**I know not much happened in this chapter, but right now I'm setting things up for things to come. Please R&R.**


	11. Keep Quiet

**AN: No, I'm not dead yet. It was close thought and let me tell you I came up with some weird stuff while I was doped up on…well I'm not sure what they had me on, I was too out of it to take notice. Still, now that the pneumonia is out of the way I can get back to work. Thanks to everyone who didn't complain about me taking so long.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10: Keep Quiet<strong>

**CHINK**

**SNAP**

**THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD**

**CHINK**

**SWISH**

**GROAN**

**THUMP**

**SIZZLE**

**BOOM**

Naruto stood panting in the center of the moonlit clearing. Around him were the splintered and charred remains of the trees that had once filled in the area he has cleared with both his chains and a variety of seal cards. A half hour of senseless destruction that filled the area with shards of wood and metal. "Glad I got that out of my system." He smiled tiredly.

"Glad you've calmed down." Said Kakashi, stepping into the clearing. "I need to talk to you about what's been going on." He raised a hand to stop the boy from interrupting. "Not just tonight, there's something going on that you're not telling us. You lose sense of your surroundings when you thing and the way you react is closer to having a conversation than thinking."

Naruto swallowed nervously, despite the Hokage's assurance he still wanted to keep quiet about what was going on. "Who would I be talking to?"

Kakashi met his eyes and sighed. "I'll stop beating around the bush. Are you talking with the Kyuubi?" Naruto looked away, but that's all the answer Kakashi needed. "How long have you been talking to it?"

"Him." corrected Naruto with a bit of anger in his voice. "I've been talking to HIM ever since Mizuki spilled the beans." He straightened up, looking back into Kakashi's eye. "And you know what? He's been one of the best teachers, the best friends I've ever had." There was silence from both the scarecrow and the fox, both stunned that the boy felt that way. "His name is Kurama, he's helped me more than anyone else, except for maybe Jiji and Iruka."

Kakashi maintained his emotionless mask while I heavy weight lodged itself firmly in his stomach. It said a lot about their village that a demon was one of the nicest people in the boy's life. "What has he been telling you?" He asked, a hint of sadness in his voice.

Naruto relaxed as well, moving to sit tiredly against one of the trees that had been outside his ring of destruction. "Seals and clan history mostly. He doesn't know much in the way of ninjutsu or genjutsu and the only taijutsu he knows isn't something for a human body. At first we were just working with each other, but since we started… I guess this is what having an older brother would be like." He leaned his head back, staring at the starry sky thought half lidded eyes now that the adrenalin was wearing off. "They're beautiful out there, you know? The stars I mean."

"Yeah," sighed Kakashi heavily. He took a seat next to Naruto. "They are, aren't they?" They sat in silence for a little while, Naruto looking up at the night sky while Kakashi became lost in thought. He knew the boy had had a bad life; shunned and neglected by those around him.

After a while Naruto spoke up again. "You wanted to know about my KI before, right? It wasn't Zabuza that did it, it was you." Kakashi turned to look at the boy in shock and confusion. "One of the things Kurama told me was that he didn't attack the village by choice, an Uchiha used his sharingan to force him. I know it's stupid, but when I saw yours…"

Kakashi nodded and returned to the sky. "What about Sasuke? He'll probably get his one day too."

"I know." Whispered Naruto quietly. "I don't want to hate him, I don't want to just go off every time I see a sharingan but I just can't help it."

"I understand what it's like." Sighed Kakashi. "My teammate Obito was the one to give me his eye. We were on a mission during the war and were attacked. I lost my eye, he awakened his sharingan and our teammate Rin was captured." His hand drifted to his headband. "When we rescued Rin, Obito saved me again by pushing me out from under a rock fall but he…" he shook his head. "He had Rin transplant his eye to replace the one I lost, said it was his way of protecting me. It was a long time before I could see an Iwa headband without letting out some KI."

A rustling in the trees brought them back to the moment. Jumping up they were just in time to for Zabuza and the hunter nin to land on the other side of the clearing. "Relax, we're not your enemies anymore." Grunted Zabuza with a dismissive wave. "Gato tired to off me while I was recovering."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. It wasn't unheard of for such things to happen, but at the same time it could just be a trick. "How did you escape and why did it take you so long to contact us?"

Zabuza snorted. "Stupid bastard fell for a water clone in the bed." Kakashi nodded, recovering from temporary death would mess with is motor skills, but Zabuza's chakra network was fine. It would just take a lot of effort to make the handseals. "When he found out it was a fake he sent everyone out to search the town. Never thought I'd haul up in the ship until I could move right." That was subjective in Kakashi's opinion, the man still moved sluggishly and would be easy to take down in a fight.

"People never bother to check under their nose." Sighed Naruto, shaking his head sadly. So many times he'd waited out the backlash of his pranks by hiding in the ANBU HQ vent system. "So what now? If you're not our enemy anymore why did you come to us?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Chuckled the demon swordsman with a murderous smile.

**The Next Morning**

Tazuna woke the next morning with a hangover. Cradling his head as he made his way to the kitchen, he got the feeling he was missing something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Thanks." He mumbled, accepting a cup of coffee and taking a seat at the table. He took a sip and blanched. Black? Tsunami knew he took cream and sugar. To his surprise thought it's wasn't his daughter cooking when he looked up, instead it was young girl, about the same age as the ninja he's hired. He opened his mouth to speak but froze when he noticed the sword leaning against the wall, the same sword that had haunted his nightmares for the past few nights.

"Took you long enough to notice." Chuckled the voice that had accompanied the sword. Hoping against hope that he was still dreaming despite the pounding in his head, Tazuna turned to see Zabuza calmly sitting next to him. "You know, most people notice when someone who tried to kill them is sitting right next to them." They sat there for a moment, Tazuna staring in horror while Zabuza sipped his coffee through a parting in his bandages. The sound of footsteps drew Zabuza's gaze to the hallway. "Morning brat."

"Morning No-Brows." Mumbled Naruto as he got a glass of water. When he finished he blinked, finally noticing the girl standing next to him. "I don't think we've met."

The girl giggled and gave him a charming smile. "You don't recognize me without my mask, do you?"

Naruto turned around, filled his glass back up, started drinking and did a spit take. "Hunter-nin-boy?"

The girl face palmed. "My name's Haku."

Naruto nodded in understanding before turning back to her in shock. "Haku, you're a girl?"

Haku simply sighed and handed him a plate of pancakes. "Here, go have breakfast." Naruto blinked before shrugging and making his way to the table. "So Zabuza, you feeling up to helping us train today?"

Zabuza 'hmmed' as he rolled his shoulders to test his muscles. He was at about chunin capacity at the moment, so enough to help the kids, but on the other hand they were from an enemy village and he couldn't very well be helping an enemy. "I suppose I could look over what you're doing." He said with a shrug. "I can't give you too much help though, different villages and all."

"But you're a missing-nin!" whined the blond, earning a glare from Zabuza.

"I'm a missing-nin because the Mizukage decided to kill off all the bloodline clans." He growled, nodding towards Haku. "Haku happens to have the Hyoton bloodline and I wasn't about to let her be killed, so I tried to take over. I'm still loyal to the country, even if I don't see eye to eye with the leadership." A frightened squeak brought their attention to Sasuke and Sakura standing in the hallway staring wide eyed at Zabuza.

"Gato fired them." Explained Naruto simply. "We're teaming up against Gato. Now grab a plate, Haku's pancakes are delicious." Haku blushed slightly as his teammates continued to stare.

"You're here to help us?" Asked Tazuna, finally breaking out of his fearful silence. The idea of such a strong ally lit his face with hope that he hadn't felt in ages.

"No." Zabuza let out a dark laugh as Tazuna deflated. "I want to kill Gato for my own reasons, not to help you."

"But you still want to kill him?" Asked the bridge builder hopefully. He let out a "Yahoo!" when Zabuza nodded.

"RIGHT, LET'S GO!" yelled Naruto as he dragged his teammates out the door, his emptly plate flung into the sink.

"But I didn't get any pancakes." Whined Sasuke. (I know it's OOC, I just thought it would be funny.)

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well there you go, sorry it's so short, but most of what I wrote had to be trashed. Thanks again to everyone, I'll try to update more often.<strong>


	12. A Place to Think

**AN: It's official, the universe loves messing with me. Just as I get over being sick my computer catches a virus or twenty (I'm pretty sure it didn't catch them from me) and I'm stuck only being able to write on my work computer during my lunch break. Murphy's Law is in full effect around here. You know I always feel sorry for Murphy, all he did was make an observation and for the rest of forever he's going to be blamed when something goes wrong.**

**On a better note I just realized one of my favorite authors, HTM, author of 'Tales of a Dimensional Travelling Gutsy Ninja' favorited my story and has been leaving very useful reviews. Be sure to check out his story…go ahead, I'll wait…**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11: A Place to Think<strong>

Zabuza stood stone still on the glassy surface of the water, the air thick with his hidden mist jutsu. He strained his ears, listening intently for the tell tale sound of his attackers. He'd definitely underestimated them, if he made it out of here alive he would never look at them the same way again. A ripple came to his foot and he readied himself. It wouldn't be long now, they'd already waited far longer than he expected.

**POOF**

"SEAL! SEAL! SEAL! SEAL! SEAL! SEAL! SEAL! SEAL!" It was official, he hated shadow clones. They learned from each other and never attacked the same way twice. The first few clones entered his rang of vision, their eyes wide with excitement. He swung low, sending a wave of water up into their faces and braced his legs to escape once again.

Until several hands grabbed him from under water.

"**SEAL!"**

**With team seven**

The three genin sat in a circle, once again trying to burn, cut or pulverized a leaf while making casual conversation. Well two of them were the third was too busy wincing, cringing and squealing in fright to do much of anything. Then he suddenly started rolling on the ground laughing.

"Alright Dope, what the hell is going on?"

Naruto sat up and tried to wipe the smile off his face. "My clones have been trying to get Zabuza's sword away from him so I can inspect the seal." He explained, his grin slowly returning. "They just succeeded."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "You've been with us for hours, how many clones did you make?"

"One." He took a moment to enjoy the looks on their faces. "When I create a clone my chakra is split evenly across all of us, so by creating one I gave it the most chakra possible. That clone has been in what I call the 'Boss' role for the fight, creating other clones and pretending to be me." He flicked his wrist and a single seal card appeared in his hand. "It also has this seal, which gathers chakra to replace what it used to make the other clones. Admittedly it's pretty slow though."

Sasuke took the card and examined it curiously. "Is it possible to use more to make it work faster?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, for some reason if you gather the ambient chakra too quickly you'll turn into a toad statue." His teammates blinked. "Yeah, there are some weird things out there."

"Why a frog?" Asked Sakura, a bit disgusted at the idea.

"Toad." Corrected Naruto. Kurama had made it clear that the toads didn't like being confused for frogs and considering one of them had battled Kurama on even footing he didn't want to annoy them. Granted Kurama was being controlled at the time, but still. "And I'm not really sure why, but I'm guessing it's related to why the toad summons were able to invent sage mode. That's basically doing what the seal does on your own and using the chakra raw rather than converting it into normal chakra."

"Can you use the seal to do Sage mode?" Asked Sasuke.

Naruto shrugged. "I guess, but I'm not going to try until I can get a toad's opinion on it. Even if I test it with a shadow clone, when it popped I'd be turned into statue." He stood and stretched his back. "So, what were we doing? I kind of forgot with all the clone memories I've been getting." Sakura just sighed and handed him a leaf. "Oh right." He frowned. "Chakra burns, here I come."

"Why not just use a seal to do it?" Asked Sasuke sarcastically.

"A chakra augmentation seal can't be turned on and off." Replied Naruto absentmindedly as he focused his chakra. "I would have to remove it to do normal jutsu."

Sasuke blinked. "You mean there are seals for that?"

Naruto nodded. "Pretty common to put elemental seals on weapons to give a boost. Water and wind are the good for swords since they increase fluency and cutting power. Lighting is favored by assassins for its speed boost. Earth is better for armor and shields, makes them harder without increasing weight." He opened his hands to see the leaf had been cut most of the way through. "YES! Finally got through the stem!"

Sasuke frowned and looked at his leaf. Black and smoldering, but refusing to ignite. "What does a fire seal do?"

"Burns around the cut." Replied the blond as if it was obvious. "Unfortunately using a fire seal takes jounin level chakra control to keep if from getting too hot and damaging the weapon or hurting the ninja using it. By the time most ninja are skilled enough to have that level of control they can just stream their own element without needing a seal." He sighed and took another leaf. "I'll be glad when this mission is over; with an A-rank payment I'll finally be able to get ingredients again."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. In all the time she'd known Naruto he'd never once shown any ability to cook. "Ingredients for what? I've only ever seen you eat ramen."

"You have to remember I don't have parents or a clan fortune to live off of." He said with a bitter smile. "I've been living on my own off of an orphan's allowance and after all the bills were paid there wasn't enough to eat out regularly. My options were to learn how to cook or get use to eating burn food." His teammates gave him a pitying glance, unable to relate to how that must have been. "Then after I entered the academy there was even less, so I had to settle for the cheapest food I could find, namely cup ramen." He let a real smile appear on his face. "Luckily I loved it and the rest was history."

He'd never thought about it before, but Sasuke had to admit he was pretty well off for an orphan. He'd always had enough money to take care of himself and people who were willing to help him. Sakura was having a similar revelation, she'd never thought about what her life would be like without her parents. "Were you any good?" She asked, knowing he'd brag about how good he was.

To her surprise though he shrugged. "I think so, but I've never gotten anybody's opinion." His face lit up excitedly. "I know, you two can come over and see for yourselves!"

"Why wait? I'm sure Tsunami would appreciate a night off from cooking." They looked up to find Kakashi standing on the branch above them, his eye curved to show he was smiling. "Besides, I'm curious how well you cook too."

Naruto shrugged again and stood. "Fine by me, but if I'm cooking I'd better go see what I have to work with. I'll see you guys back at the house."

"Hey dope, I just thought of something. Why not have a few clones train? If you get their memories and experiences, wouldn't that give you their control training too?" His two teammates blinked and looked up to Kakashi for his input.

The Cyclops nodded his head thoughtfully. "It should work, but only a few." Naruto nodded excitedly and made five clones. "Alright, every hour whoever's furthest along dispels." The clones nodded and began trying to cut leaves as the real Naruto walked away. Kakashi watched him go, a wide range of emotions running through him as he thought about all the thing the boy had told them about his life.

Naruto let his mind wonder as he walked, his cooking experiments running through his head. Since this was a fishing village they would probably have fish for dinner tonight. Hopefully they would already be cleaned, but they would have the right tools if he had to do it himself again. 'Hey Kurama-nii, do you know anything about hunting?'

Kurama blinked at the new title, apparently Naruto wasn't kidding when he told Kakashi he thought of the fox as an older brother. **"I'm a fox; of course I know how to hunt."** He replied irritably, not wanting to show how much his new title meant to him. He had a reputation to maintain after all.

'You're a giant mass of chakra shaped like a fox.' deadpanned Naruto. 'As far as I know you don't even need to eat, let alone hunt.' Kurama growled a bit and began instructing Naruto in the ways of the hunt, however since I'm not a fox and know nothing about hunting we'll skip to later that night.

Team seven stared apprehensively at the food before them. As far as they could tell it was a variety of game meats in a sauce over rice with some wild vegetables on the side. They, of course, knew better than to trust appearances, even more so with anything involving Naruto. Beside them Haku and Zabuza were having similar problems, having seen the way Naruto cooked. They still couldn't believe he'd gutted and cleaned the animals with a butter knife.

Deciding enough was enough Tazuna snorted "This is so much scarier than opposing Gato." And took a bite. He chewed slowly, his eyes widening in surprise and a single tear sliding down his cheek. "I have never in my life tasted anything more delicious." He announced in barely a whisper before his hands shot out for more. With that the ninja and Tsunami took a bite themselves. When asked later they would all claim they heard an angelic choir.

"Rolls are ready." Announced Naruto happily as he brought a basket to the table. "I everything alright so far?"

Kakashi looked up with tears in his eyes. "You are the team chef from now on; this is the best food I've ever tasted."

Naruto blushed at the compliment. "I'm not that good, I just copied what I saw cooks doing when I spied of some restaurants."

Zabuza choked. "You're telling me you did all this without a cookbook or taking lessons?"

"Of course." Grinned Naruto. "That's the best way to learn. You can study from books all you want, but until you do something you haven't learned it. Like learning to throw a kunai, you can read about the process all you want but it's useless until you practice." Seeing that everyone either agreed with him or was too busy eating to argue he went back in the kitchen to work on dessert.

**Later that night**

There are few places that can be considered perfect for thinking. The top of a mountain, a deserted island, an isolated cave; but they all share the same problem: they were exhausting to get to. As a result the place Naruto was relaxing was far and above superior. A hot bath. With the water relaxing his body, Naruto was able to let his mind wonder. He idly blew bubbles with his soapy fingers, thinking how similar they were to how he made shadow clones. A puff of chakra contained in a thin shell. His eyes followed the last one to were the others had landed on the water's surface, all lined up in a row.

A thought clicked in his head, his eyes widening in excitement. "THAT'S IT!" He shouted, running out to the others. "I figured out what was wrong with my chains."

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON DOPE!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry for another short chapter, but I'm going back to my old standpoint of 'updating frequently is better than posting a novel once a month'.<strong>


	13. Surprise

**AN: Sorry for the lack of update, I really don't have an excuse other than laziness and the fact that moving got me out of the habit of writing.**

**Chapter 12: Surprise**

Zabuza wasn't use to people staring at him, at least not like this. He was use to frightened glances out of the corners of people's eyes or burning hatred from people he'd hurt in some way. He was use to fear, terror, hatred and loathing. But he just couldn't get use to the way the bridge workers were looking at him. They were still nervous, but not of him. He could see that they were comforted by the sight of him standing there menacingly. He understood the reasoning behind it; they saw him as protection, scary protection, but protection none the less.

"They seem to like you." Said Tazuna, coming to stand beside him. "A few of the ones who quit even came back when they heard about you. So what are you all doing today?"

Zabuza grunted. It wasn't that the builder's liked him. They felt they were safer here than at home, even if that meant going against Gato. "Kakashi is getting what info he can in town and the kids are training. Pinky wanted to learn about the medicines Haku uses and Haku wanted to work on nature manipulation."

Tazuna nodded, not really understanding what nature manipulation was, but getting that the kids were working together. "Well we shouldn't need much longer to finish. Two days if we rush.

"Go slowly; make it take at least three." He said quietly. "Gato's a bastard, but he knows how to handle a crowd. He'll wait till you're almost done and attack. I'll need to be at full strength for that."

Tazuna nodded stiffly. "I know how the monster works; I lost my son to one of his… demonstrations."

"He must have been a good man." Zabuza's voice was softer and Tazuna got the odd feeling he was trying to comfort the old man. For a while the two of them stood there, gazing out over the unfinished bridge before Zabuza turned to leave. "I'm going to go check on Haku; he has a habit of getting attached."

Tazuna snorted. "You say that like it's a…did you say he?" Zabuza just let out a dark chuckle and disappeared.

Elsewhere

To the untrained eye it would have looked like a battlefield. Craters six feet wide and half as deep littered the once peaceful clearing. What trees remained were charred and splintered, a few still on fire. To the trained eye it would have looked like the result of two powerful enemies go at it. There were no bodies littering the ground; no blood from fallen allies. To those in the know it was Naruto and Sasuke sparing.

The PMD's (Person of Mass Destruction) in question lay across from each other, barely able to move and grumbling at the result of their battle. A tie. The rules had been simple: first to draw blood, but for all their fighting neither had shed a drop. They'd gotten hits on each other, dozens of close calls and a heated argument over the use of shadow clones, but in the end neither could make the other bleed.

"I should have won." Groaned Sasuke, his voice a tired monotone. "All those times I almost had you."

"Almost only counts with horse shoes and explosive notes." Groaned Naruto in the same tired voice. "I punched you in the face, how did you not get a bloody nose?"

"Don't know."

The two girls (AN: Haku is called whatever the people around him/her thing he/she is) that had been waiting for them to finish walked carefully forward. The ground was still soft around the craters Naruto's seals had blown and still smoking for the ones Sasuke had made with his fireballs. They went to work healing the two exhausted boys while muttering under their breath about overkill and rivalries.

"What is that?" Asked Naruto as he felt Haku rub some of her herbal ointment on him.

She jumped, thinking he'd been unconscious since he wasn't moving a muscle. "Herbal remedy I learned to make." She tenderly rubbed some more on a rather large bruise he'd gotten on his cheek. "The ingredients are pretty common so I always have some available." She watched as he wiped some off his cheek and sniffed it curiously. Then to her surprise he tasted it.

"Needs more lemon grass." He mumbled as his arm fell limp by his side. Blinking, Haku tentatively took a taste as well.

It took five minutes for her to stop gagging.

Once the boys were recovered enough they all went to sit by a nearby stream and began working on nature manipulation again. Haku was quickly catching up to Naruto with wind and was able to form small droplets of water form on her leaf for water manipulation. "How are you two able to keep going after using that much chakra?" she asked, looking over at the boys who had been unconscious less than an hour ago.

"Seals." They said in unison, making Naruto shoot a glare a Sasuke before he continued. "We're using some of my absorption seals, they're not fast enough for us to do any jutsu yet but we're fine for this." He rolled up his sleeve to show the card stuck to his forearm while Sasuke showed the one under his arm warmer band thing.

"By the way, what was wrong with your chains?" Asked Sakura. "You said last night you figured out what was wrong." A slight blush dusted her cheeks as she remembered the event.

"It was the way I made them." His face looked like a tomato. "I was changing chakra to metal right away when it came out, but I need to do it father out and make the whole link at once. Sort of how shadow clones are made. I have some clones practicing now since it's a little harder than doing it the other way." He blinked and opened his hands. "Awesome, I made it all the way through!"

"Good work brat." Said Zabuza right behind him, which resulted in Naruto jumping into the arms of the person next to him…who just so happened to be Sasuke. "Damn, I really wish I'd brought a camera. Anyway I just came to check up on you all, everything alright?" They all nodded, the boys blushing up a storm. "Good, Haku come with me for a bit." Saying her goodbyes Haku left with Zabuza.

"What do you think that was about?" Asked Naruto watching her leave.

"Not sure." Shrugged Sakura before turning to him with a nervous expression. "Naruto, there's been something bugging me, you zone out sometimes and I'm a little worried."

"It's nothing." He replied quickly. "I'm just thinking."

"You don't look like your thinking." She insisted, putting down her leaf in favor of watching him.

"I'm with her dope," Sighed Sasuke. "You look like you're talking to someone."

'**Again I ask: why don't you just tell them?'** Grumbled Kurama.

'Not now Kurama-nii.' Pleaded Naruto desperately.

"You're doing it again." Announced Sakura.

Naruto sighed. "You're not going to leave me alone until I tell, are you?"

"No." **'Nope.'** "Not a chance, Dope."

He scratched his head, trying to decide how much to tell them and the best way to do it. "Remember how I told you I was learning seals from someone? Well I sort of have a mental connection to him. His name is Kurama by the way." He took a moment to judge their expressions and were relieved to see that while surprised they weren't upset. "Sorry about not telling you, but I was worried you'd think I was just crazy and hearing voices."

"Insanity wouldn't teach you about seals. The fact that your learning something you didn't know before proves that it's someone else." rationalized Sasuke. (I am not a shrink, I don't know if this is true.) Noticing the looks he was getting from the other to he explained. "I spent a lot of time with a shrink after what happened to my clan." He darkened slightly, but was drawn back by Naruto laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We'll get then." Assured the blond. "Both of them." They stayed like that for a moment before they both realized how sappy it was and broke apart blushing. The moment was ruined further by Sakura fainting with a trail of blood coming from her nose.

"We never speak of this again Dope."

"Agreed Teme."

Sakura woke a little later, just before Haku returned long enough to say she was going to guard the bridge with Zabuza for the rest of the day. Again team seven worked on their respective elements, the boys refusing to talk after what just happened and Sakura fantasizing about the stuff in those books Ino had shown her before they began fighting.

Sakura was able to turn her leaf to dust a short while later and, not to be outdone, Sasuke made his burst into flames within an hour. Encouraged by their success they stripped the tree they were under, going through the leaves like Naruto went through bowls of ramen. "So...what now?" Asked Naruto as he cut through the last leaf.

Sasuke looked up at the sky reveled by their deforestation work, noting that it was starting to get dark. "We should probably just head back. We can ask Kakashi for a new exercise tomorrow."

**AN: Pretty much just character development this chapter. I'll try to get the plot moving faster next time.**

**An expression my family uses is "Almost only counts with horse shoes and hand grenades"****. Not sure how popular the expression is, but that's why Naruto said what he did.**


	14. Holy BLEEP

**AN: Let's see…blood of a virgin, tears of an innocent child (both easier to get than people think), last chapter of the story I'm bringing back from the dead…that should do it. Sorry for the long wait, I lost my muse and only just got her back. Hopefully it won't be as long a wait for the next chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 13: Holly BLEEP I'm actually writing again!**

* * *

><p>The eggs, bacon and toast breakfast Tsunami made for her family and the ninja protecting them was eaten in silence. Despite the deliciousness of the meal none of them were in the mood to eat (though Kakashi and Zabuza made sure that they all did). They were all lost in thought on what today would bring. Today was the day the bridge would be finished. Today was the day they would face Gato's pseudo army. Today was the day they would get revenge. Today was the day their loved ones would be avenged. Today was the day they'd been waiting, hoping, and training for.<p>

Tazuna looked at the torn photo on the wall, remembering with crystal clarity the face that had been removed. That man, who had given them all so much hope, was probably watching over him, just for him to have gotten as far as he had. The old man would never forgive Gato for what he had done and today he would finally fulfill the promise he'd made his son-in-law...no, the fisherman was more than that, he was Tazuna's son, blood be damned.

Sasuke and Sakura were going over the battle plan in their heads. If Gato wasn't there waiting for them Naruto would put up what trap seals he could and the three of them would stay with Tazuna near the unfinished end of the bridge and guard him and the workers. Haku and Zabuza would be waiting in the waters below using the breathing things Naruto had gotten off the Demon Brothers and would attack from behind, trapping Gato and his men on the bridge.

Naruto on the other hand was going through the seal cards he would be able to use. Most of his explosive ones were out since they would damage the bridge. His trap seals were also limited; needing to be in places workers wouldn't set them off. Same went for all the seals he'd make there, no damaging the bridge or hurting the workers. For a moment he considered using the remote detonation array he'd been working on, but then he remembered what happened to that shadow clone. He liked his skin on the outside, thank you very much.

His chains weren't as good as he'd like them either. As much as he wanted to be scratching out seals midfight they were little more than whips at the moment. He had no doubt he'd get to where he wanted to be one day, able to control his chain as if they were his own limbs, but his damned poor control made their movements sluggish.

For his part, Zabuza was burning the image of his would be murderer into the forefront of his mind. Even after all his years the sight of himself being strangled to death while he watched helplessly from his hiding place send an all to unwelcome chill down his back. Spiked black hair. An X-shaped scar on his chin. A long serpenteen dragon tattoo going up his jawline and cheek, posed as if ready to eat his right eye. He'd find the man and show him who the real killer was. Beside him Haku was thinking much the same thing, but instead focusing on the man's eyes. Dark and soulless, like he'd lost all hope. Eyes that seemed to almost beg, for what he didn't know.

They left as quietly as they had eaten, save for Tazuna promising his family that everything would be alright and Naruto scratching out some seals to protect the house. The very air around them seemed tense as they walked through town, most of the people they saw hid from them as they approached. It seemed like everyone knew what was going to happen. Then again, they'd seen it before and, unlike Tazuna, they thought it would end the same way as last time someone went against Gato.

They arrived safely and as luck would have it Gato had yet to show up. "Probably wants to corner us at the end of the bridge." Muttered Zabuza as he looked over the handful of workers brave enough to show up. He could respect men like this, ones who did what they had to do no matter what. "Alright brat, get those traps set. Old man, take your men to the end of the bridge and make sure you all listen to Pinky and Emo. Despite their age, they are ninja and they know what to do when shit hits the fan." The crowd sweatdropped at the nicknames before doing as they were told.

Naruto scanned the bridge carefully, looking for places to put his traps. Somewhere to the side where the slow trickle of workers would be safe. Gato was suppose to bring a mob, one that would need to use the entire width of the bridge as oppose to the workers making their way down the center.

**'Relax.'** Ordered Kurama, making his adopted brother jump and almost set of the seal he'd been placing. **'See? You're too jumpy.'** Naruto let out weak chuckle, but it did what it was suppose to and eased his nerves a little. **'Try to stay calm. If you're too tense you'll panic and make mistakes. That's probably why Zabuza was using those nick names, he was trying to lighten the mood.'** Naruto could almost see him standing in his cage, the quick twitch of a tail every few moments being the only sign the fox felt any of the current tension.

'It's not as easy as you make it seem.' sighed Naruto, placing the last of his cards. They were set to go off all at once when the mob triggered all of them. If they were lucky Gato would be leading the group and get taken out first thing. Kurama was right though, he needed to relax. 'Do you think you could tell me more about Mom?'

'**Sure**.' He chuckled, trying to think of what to tell him. **'Well, even though you're the spitting image of your father, you got your personality from your mother. She was a prank queen, though you're well on your way to dethroning her. I think she started to get back at kids who teased her about her red hair and round face, use to call her Tomato head and stuff like that. Well that mostly let up when she got her other nickname, The Red-Hot Habanero.'** He had a good laugh at the memory. **'Oh as much as I hated being locked up inside her, she was fun to watch. I'll tell you more after the battle, so make sure you get us through it.'**

Further down the bridge Sasuke and Sakura sat working on their nature manipulation while Kakashi stood watch. Sasuke was trying to create a burst of flames by heating the air, just like he had ignited the leaf. At first he'd only managed to create a heat haze, but had found that using something as a trigger helped him focus enough to make a small spark. Now he was repeatedly snapping his fingers, small flashes of fire bursting above them.

Sakura on the other hand was reversing what she'd done with the leaf and compress a handful of sand into a rock. So far she's only managed to produce slightly larger grains of sand. Nature manipulation seemed to be the point where her control evened out with the boys' having chakra to spare. It was well worth it though as her already impressive control had advanced far enough to fool Kakashi with simple genjutsus.

They looked up as Naruto arrived and stopped their training, knowing they'd need as much chakra as possible. "All set Dope?" Asked Sasuke, massaging his stiff fingers.

"All set, Teme." Nodded the blond, taking an unopened pack of playing cards out of his pocket. "Want to play a game to pass the time?" His teammates glanced at each other before shrugging.

Far away in a rundown casino another blond looked up, a look of amusement and mild confusion on her face. She didn't know what it was, but she had sensed something. Not good or bad, just a sensation that she had no name for. Before she could consider if further it was her turn to bet again.

Back at the plot the three genin were sitting around an empty crate playing cards. At first they'd played go fish and crazy eights, the only games Naruto knew, then moved on to betting games as ninja were prone to do.

"Two pair." Announced Sasuke, laying his cards on the table to show a pair of sevens and a pair of kings.

Naruto blinked, his brow knitted in thought. "You said this was two pairs, right?" The other two groaned as he reviled two pairs of aces.

"How?" Growled Sasuke in annoyance. He knew his teammate was cheating, there was no other explanation to how he could be winning so much, but he had no idea how. Now he owed the blond half the Uchiha district. "It's impossible for you to be winning this often. How are you cheating?"

Sakura sighed, she hadn't lost as much as Sasuke, but she too now owed money to their teammate. "Sasuke-kun, YOU'RE the one dealing and we had Naruto take off his jacket back when we were playing crazy eights. I don't think there IS as way he could be cheating."

"Fine." Fumed Sasuke, handing the cards to Sakura. "Just the two of us this time. If I win, you teach me sealing. If you win, I'll give you the Uchiha district." His teammates stared at him in surprise, they didn't thing he was that upset over the game.

Naruto had to admit thought, it wasn't a bad bet. He'd have taught Sasuke just by being asked, so if he lost it wouldn't be a big deal. If he won he'd get an entire clan compound to do with as he pleased. He could already taste the waterfall of ramen. "You're on Teme."

Sakura swallowed hard and shuffled the cards, making sure to get everything mixed well so neither could cheat. While she knew the ninja saying 'cheating is ok so long as you don't get caught', she also knew neither of her teammates wanted that. Right now they wanted a fair game and she'd do her best to give it to them.

The boys looked at their cards and considered the hands that could come from them.

"Two." Said Sasuke, laying two of the cards from his hand on the table. Getting his new cards he fought hard not to smile, it wasn't what he wanted, but it was still good.

Naruto considered his hand a moment longer before laying his own cards down on the table. "Four." The others sweatdropped before Sakura dealt out his cards with a sight. A chill ran down their backs when they saw the smile spreading across his face. "Ready?"

Sasuke nodded, an evil smile of his own appearing. "Full house." He chuckled darkly, expecting to see Naruto cry in defeat.

"Royal Flush!" Announced Naruto, stopping Sasuke mid chuckle and letting out his own, which sounded more like a mad cackle that made the hair on the back of their necks stand up. "I have a house! I have houses! I have an entire clan compound!" He jumped to his feet, dancing a happy dance and kissing both girls repeatedly.

Sasuke's reply was cut off by the screams of Gato's men as they triggered the traps.

When the sealing smoke wafted away only a few dozen of the original hundred thugs remained. "I knew those teleportation seals would be useful for something." Said Naruto, still smiling from his winnings and wondering where exactly the thugs had been sent. But then his good mood vanished. Everyone's did. Because they saw the man standing next to Gato.

It couldn't have been him.

He was their friend…

Their hero…

Son…

It was Kaiza.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: MWAHAHAHAHA Oh I bet none of you saw that coming. A cookie to anyone who can guess what happened. Also, cookies to anyone who guessed he'd be back from all the Protomen references I put in.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Omake<strong>

"K-Kaiza…" said Tazuna in a stunned whisper that carried far in the silence. Their eyes ment and Tazuna saw the pain and fear and hopelessness that filled his once happy son. He saw red. Anger like he had never known welled up inside Tazuna. He forgot he was one man, a simple bridge builder facing a mob of hardened fighters. All that mattered was killing the ugly midget bastard that had done that to his son.

With a mighty roar he rushed forward, his tools raised high in attack. The first man fell with his sword and skull shattered under Tazuna's mighty hammer. The bridge builder was just that, a builder. In his hands a hammer was a good as any weapon. He knew it like the back of his hand and saw it just as often.

When all you have is a hammar, everything looks like a nail.


	15. Letting the fox out of the bag

**AN: As I'm writing this, I'm under sedge by Stormageddon AKA Hurricane Sandy (Who the hell names these things and why do they pick suck lame names?) and have no idea what will happen. Wish me luck and pray I don't fulfill my lifelong dream of looking up at the sky through the eye of a hurricane. **

**Chapter 14: Letting the fox out of the bag**

* * *

><p>While everyone else was starring in disbelief at their hero's survival and betrayal Naruto's eyes were elsewhere. They stared at his disfigured arms, horrible metal...things running through them, but his eyes were fixed on the long tattoo on the man's face, white hot rage building inside him as he saw it for what it was. There was one thing he'd never allow seals, for that's what the dragon truly was, to be used for and Gato had dared to do it. He'd dared to enslave another living thing to where even his mind was barely his own.<p>

He didn't care about the mission any more.

He didn't care about the bridge.

Kurama was yelling for the midget's blood and Naruto was all too willing to let him have it.

Everyone, friend and foe, backed away from Naruto as red chakra poured out of him, his hair and clothes moving as if caught in a heavy wind. Killing Intent rolled off of him like an invisible mist, stronger than most of them had ever felt.

Red chakra bubbled up over him, his skin peeling away and his blood mixing with the chakra coating his form. He hunched over, the last of the transformation making a single long tail sprout from his tailbone.

The wind died and the world fell into an ominous silence. No one dared move. Every instinct they had told them this thing was to be feared.

It's head sprang up, locking eyes with the terrified mob boss. Before he could say anything the man was in the creature's grip, it's very touch burning his neck like fire. Its glowing white eyes and mouth twisted into some cruel mockery of a smile as it squeezed tighter and tighter, slowly crushing the life out of Gato.

With a final Slowly it raised its gaze from the corpse at its feet and looked around as if asking the thugs what they would do.

Finally the one broke from the tension, screaming and jumping off the side of the bridge. The others followed suit, running away as fast as they could.

Sasuke and Kakashi looked on as the creature let out a series of short growls. It was only when it doubled over clutching its stomach did they realize it was laughing.

"N-Naruto?" Called Kakashi, hoping that his student was still in control.

The creature held up a finger for them to wait a moment. Again it changed, the swirling black and red chakra fading away into a feral looking Naruto who's skin had been burned away to the raw flesh. Before they could even do anything thought, he was healing, new skin forming all over in a matter of seconds. When at last he was fully healed he returned to normal and collapsed on to the ground.

And then Zabuza jumped from the ocean, his sword slamming down onto the empty bridge. Looking around he saw only Kakashi and Sasuke awake. "...Ok, what did I miss?"

* * *

><p><strong>Naruto's Mindscape<strong>

"Ow..." groaned Naruto as he lay on the soft blue grass of his mind. "Why didn't you tell me that letting you take control would feel like I was being set on fire in a vat of acid while being electrocuted with a kick to the balls thrown in?"

**"Sorry,**" Said Kurama, bowing his head. **"I didn't know. Mito and Kushina never gave me the chance, so this is the first I've been able to do it. I didn't know what it would do to you."**

"It's alright," assured Naruto. "I let it happen, so it's my fault too. Let's agree now not to do that unless I'm in big trouble."

Kurama nodded. **"I should probably also tell you it cost you about five years off your lifespan."**

"WHAT?!"

**"Calm down, you're an Uzumaki, remember? You'll still be over three hundred before you kick the bucket."**

Naruto blinked. "Say what?"

Kurama rolled his eyes. **"Yes, amazing vitality. Mito was already a hundred years old when she sealed me inside her. She would have lasted another few hundred if she hadn't but taking me in burned up most of her life."**

"Wow. So why did my skin heal so much faster than normal?"

**"That was because of my chakra. It boosted your normal healing ability, but at the cost of burning off some of your life."**

Naruto hummed thoughtfully. "Do you think we did the fight too fast? The fans will be a bit disappointed."

Kurama snorted. **"It was a group of thugs against five ninja. Even if I didn't make an appearance it would have been a short fight. Now if the author is done speaking through us, I think it's time for you to wake up."**

"Any idea what I should tell them? I didn't think that far ahead."

Kurama sighted.** "Alright, I have the perfect plan."** He leaned close to the bars and Naruto leaned in to listen. **"TELL THEM THE TRUTH!"**

* * *

><p><strong>Tazuna's house<strong>

Naruto woke with a groan and rubbed his head. Looking around he saw he was in the guest bedroom in Tazuna's house and that night had fallen. He soundlessly made his way to the kitchen for a drink but stopped when he heard Sakura say his name in the dinning room. With the stealth of someone who could sneak around the Hyuga compound he listened in.

"Sakura, whatever that thing was, it wasn't Naruto." Said Sasuke. "That thing was...it was like...you know the feeling when you're alone in the wild and you come across something that had no interest in you, but could kill you in an instant if you gave it a reason to? It was powerful and could kill us as easily as you could kill a fly. Hell, just being near it activated my sharingan." Naruto lowered his head, a mixture of emotions flowing through him. It was weird for Sasuke to be defending him, but at the same time welcome. He'd somehow managed to get through to him. On the other hand, sharingan. Either way though he knew what he had to do.

"You're right, it wasn't him." Said Kakashi, his voice tired. "I can't tell you much, but remember that S-rank secret Naruto mentioned during the introductions? That was...part of it. Naruto is the only one legally aloud to give you any details, but I will say that no matter what, Naruto is still Naruto."

Naruto made his way into the room the room undetected, and found them all sitting at the table. He carefully came up behind Kakashi and spoke. "Thanks Kakashi, but I think it's time I tell them the truth." They all jumped and turned to stare at him as he sat in an open seat, a nervous smile on his lips. "You kind of already know most of it though. Remember how I said someone had been teaching me seals?" His teammates nodded. "That someone is Named Kurama and as you can probably guess, he isn't human..." He told them about his parents. He told them about Kurama. He told them about the night of the attack. He told them about his hatred of the sharingan and anything that controlled people. He told them about the pain of transforming and how it burned years off his life.

He told them everything.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: As I'm writing <em>this, <em>Sandy has passed and I'm alright. My best wishes to everyone who was hit harder than I was. **


	16. Home Again

**AN: Sorry I took so long, I wasn't prepared for the holiday season.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 15: Home Again<strong>

The horror that filled Sakura's eyes was like a knife to Naruto's soul. Yes, is schoolboy crush was gone, but in its place Sakura had become a close friend and her reaction was exactly what he was afraid it would be. Fear, hatred, disgust, all those and more filled her eyes. And so it was a complete surprise when she hugged him and stared cry incoherently into his chest. He stared at her for a moment before nervously rubbing her back and looking to his teacher and other teammate for help. He froze again as he saw one emotion he hadn't expected on their faces.

Guilt.

For Sasuke it was the guilt of having his friend suffer so much because of a member of his clan. He had no doubt Naruto's story was true, it was a well known fact in his clan that Madara had been able to control the Kyuubi and had used it in his battle against the first. Someone else had unlocked those eyes and attacked a woman who had just given birth, a woman who would have her newborn child used to seal away the same monster she'd been burdened with. This was why everyone had told him to stay away from the blond, why he had so much chakra and why he healed so quickly. It all made sense and it all made his sick.

For Kakashi it was the guilt of letting down his father figure and letting the boy who should have been his brother in all but blood go through life alone. He knew the kind of life Naruto had lived, even being assigned to look after him a few times during his ANBU days, but to have it all laid out like that made his disgusted with himself. The cold weight of guilt that had been building ever since they sat together watching the stars was finally too much for him.

Sakura's emotions were far less focused, but at the same time more intense. That Naruto had been treated so poorly disgusted her and the idea that a father could do something so horrible to his newborn son was horrifying. The way the villager's had treated him, the way SHE had treated him, was just too much for her and so she clung onto him and let it all out.

Silence filled the room for a while, slowly going from nervous to comforting. Sakura's tears stopped, but she still hugged Naruto and Sasuke moves so he was sitting on the blond's other side. They would be there for him, just like he'd promised to be there for them.

"So," began Naruto when they were all calmed down. "what happened after Kurama did his thing?"

"We told everyone you summoned a demon to kill Gato." Stated Kakashi, the tense atmosphere relaxing. "Zabuza and Haku accepted that it was a village secret, but weren't happy about it. Surprisingly, they took not being allowed to kill Kaiza better than I thought. After we got you two back here we raided Gato's hideout and the partying just died down about an hour ago. Unfortunately, Kaiza..."

"Coma, right?" Sighed Naruto, earning surprised looks from the others. "It's part of the seal on his face, once the designated 'master' is removed from influence the seal shuts down all unnecessary functions. It's actually closed to suspended animation."

"Can you remove it?" Asked Kakashi.

Naruto shook his head. "As I am now, no. I'm going to need to study it a bit before I know if it even can be removed. Slave seals aren't exactly meant to come off, or at least not without consequences."

"What about your blood?" asked Sakura.

"My blood doesn't create or destroy seals, it just rewrites them. That's why I have to draw the seal out in ink before using my blood. I also can't change their basic function. I can change the power and direction of an explosive tag, but I can't turn it into a storage seal." His eyes lost focus, something they now knew meant he was listening to Kurama. "That may not be a bad idea. If I do it right I can alter the submission command into a repression lock and if I reverse the polarity of the will interface I should be able to rig up an occlumenty matrix to block the nerve..." He stopped seeing the glazed looks in their eyes. "I can repress the memories and keep his arms from hurting while giving him back his free will."

"Ooooh." They said in unison, making Naruto facepalm.

They fell into silence again, at least until their stomachs growled and Naruto found himself on the receiving end of two and a half sets of puppy dog eyes.

* * *

><p>He woke slowly to two strange voices speaking over him. He couldn't tell what they were saying, his mind too foggy from his sleep. They were quiet enough for him to ignore and he was still sleepy.<p>

"He moved!" One hissed urgently, breaking through the fog. What was going on? Who moved? "My name is Naruto, can you hear me?" He slowly opened his eyes to the sight of a blue eyed blond staring at him from less than an inch away.

Kaiza blinked as the boy continued to stare, his big blue eyes seeming to pierce right into his soul. "Um...hi?"

They boy, Naruto he remembered, smiled the biggest smile he'd ever seen and leaned back to Kaiza's right. "Sakura, Haku, I need a full medical scan." Almost immediately Naruto's face was replaced by those of two girls who hovered glowing green hands up and down Kaiza's body.

"Will one of you please tell me what's going on?" He got a sinking feeling as they all glanced silently at each other.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Asked Naruto as the girls finished their scans and moved away.

Kaiza closed his eyes and thought. "I went out to fight someone…he…I can't remember his name. He had been hurting everyone, I needed to stop him. I…I can't remember anything after that." His eyes shot open and he grabbed Naruto's jacket. "My family! Are they safe?!"

"They're fine." Assured Naruto. "They were the ones to hire my team to protect Tazuna and finish off Gato." Kaiza relaxed into his bed as Naruto continued to explain. "It's been about a year since you went off to fight Gato. There's no easy way to say this so I'll just spit it out: you failed. I won't go into the details, but it was bad enough that everyone thought you were dead. Unfortunately Gato had some stuff from overseas to pull you back from death's door." He pulled out a mirror to show Kaiza the flowing marks on his face. "Originally this kept your mind locked up and forced you to obey him, but I've rewritten it. Your arms have also had prosthetics implanted in them to repair the damage, but the girls were skilled enough to smooth everything out." Kaiza stared up at him in shock as Naruto continued. "From what we can tell Gato never used you until a few weeks ago, apparently your arms took that long to repair, and even then you never managed to hurt anyone. Well, no one but a water clone." Kaiza relaxed a little hearing that, at least he didn't hurt anyone. "Once Kurama-nii took care of Gato a fail safe in the seal kicked in knocked you out until I did my thing. Any questions?"

"Why don't I remember any of this?"

"Part of what I rewrote was to change the part that kept your mind locked up to keep your memories repressed. I didn't think you'd want to remember stuff like that."

Kaiza nodded. "I guess so."

"That's about it then." Smiled Naruto. "The seal will do its thing and you should be able to use your arms just fine. You'll probably have to put up with people starring at you, but that's about it." He shook his head and blinked. "Wow, didn't think he'd do that...sorry, ninja thing. Inari is on his way t-" He was interrupted by Inari running into the room. "I'll just leave you two alone."

* * *

><p>Once Kaiza was up and about again team seven said their goodbyes, Zabuza and Haku deciding to stay in Wave. It was on their last night in there that Sasuke was further traumatized.<p>

He gulped and shook himself, he shouldn't be this nervous. How many times had girls done it to him? He took a calming breath and knocked on Haku's door. "Haku, are you up?"

After a moment the door opened to a sleepy Haku rubbing her eyes. "What Sasuke?"

He gulped again. "Um...well, we leave in the morning and I didn't...didn't want to leave without telling you...telling you...why are you laughing!" As he spoke Haku had slowly woken up and realized what Sasuke was doing.

"Sasuke," she giggled. "sorry to break it to you, but I'm really a guy."

* * *

><p>The return trip was mostly spent in silence, Naruto talking with Kurama, Kakashi reading his book and Sakura trying to figure out why Sasuke was had a thousand yard stare. When they were almost to the village Naruto stopped with a wide smile spreading across his face.<p>

"Let me be the first to congratulate you on you're first successful A rank mission." Said Sarutobi with a grandfatherly smile. "Though I must ask that you not create a parade of shadow clones every time you do."

"I haven't pranked anyone for a while, I needed my fix." Whined Naruto, pouting like a child. "Besides, everyone loved it."

"I'm just impressed that the floats were so detailed." Mused Kakashi. "How did you learn all those instruments for the marching band?"

"Shadow clones." He replied happily. "Though I consider Kurama's float to be the the best part, you should have seen some of the reactions I got when he moved."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: That's it for now, pretty much just filler. Next time I'll try to get some of the NaruHina going.**


	17. END

Hello all, I'm sorry to say I've lost interest in Seal Master and won't be continuing. Between the series ending and going so long without updating I don't see the point of continuing now. Honestly I blame my lack of planning. I didn't really have a end in mind, I just wrote whatever I thought was funny. If you want to continue it, feel free.


End file.
